{"id":1844,"date":"2019-01-16T15:30:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T20:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/practicalbits.com\/?p=1844"},"modified":"2020-11-19T21:59:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T02:59:38","slug":"we-who-are-your-closest-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/?p=1844","title":{"rendered":"We Who Are Your Closest Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came across this poem while reading Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott and laughed out loud immediately. I think your reaction to the first time you read this poem is a kind of Rorschach test.<\/p>\n<p>phillip lopate, 1943<br \/>\n(from poets.org)<\/p>\n<p>we who are<br \/>\nyour closest friends<br \/>\nfeel the time<br \/>\nhas come to tell you<br \/>\nthat every Thursday<br \/>\nwe have been meeting<br \/>\nas a group<br \/>\nto devise ways<br \/>\nto keep you<br \/>\nin perpetual uncertainty<br \/>\nfrustration<br \/>\ndiscontent and<br \/>\ntorture<br \/>\nby neither loving you<br \/>\nas much as you want<br \/>\nnor cutting you adrift<\/p>\n<p>your analyst is<br \/>\nin on it<br \/>\nplus your boyfriend<br \/>\nand your ex-husband<br \/>\nand we have pledged<br \/>\nto disappoint you<br \/>\nas long as you need us<\/p>\n<p>in announcing our<br \/>\nassociation<br \/>\nwe realize we have<br \/>\nplaced in your hands<br \/>\na possible antidote<br \/>\nagainst uncertainty<br \/>\nindeed against ourselves<br \/>\nbut since our Thursday nights<br \/>\nhave brought us<br \/>\nto a community of purpose<br \/>\nrare in itself<br \/>\nwith you as<br \/>\nthe natural center<br \/>\nwe feel hopeful you<br \/>\nwill continue to make<br \/>\nunreasonable<br \/>\ndemands for affection<br \/>\nif not as a consequence<br \/>\nof your<br \/>\ndisastrous personality<\/p>\n<p>then for the good of the collective<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across this poem while reading Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott and laughed out loud immediately. I think<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":""},"categories":[33,30,34,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1846,"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions\/1846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalbits.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}