{"id":21603,"date":"2011-12-20T19:11:37","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T03:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/after-disappointment-poem-by-mark-jarman\/"},"modified":"2011-12-20T19:11:37","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T03:11:37","slug":"after-disappointment-poem-by-mark-jarman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/after-disappointment-poem-by-mark-jarman\/","title":{"rendered":"After Disappointment | Poem by Mark Jarman"},"content":{"rendered":"
Here\u2019s a moving poem about parenthood, about finding one\u2019s self to be an adult but still trying to care for the child within. Mark Jarman teaches at Vanderbilt University.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After Disappointment<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n To lie in your child\u2019s bed when she is gone<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Is calming as anything I know. To fall<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Asleep, her books arranged above your head,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Is to admit that you have never been<\/p>\n<\/p>\n So tired, so enchanted by the spell<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Of your grown body. To feel small instead<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Of blocking out the light, to feel alone,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Not knowing what you should or shouldn\u2019t feel,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Is to find out, no matter what you\u2019ve said<\/p>\n<\/p>\n About the cramped escapes and obstacles<\/p>\n<\/p>\n You plan and face and have to call the world,<\/p>\n<\/p>\n That there remain these places, occupied<\/p>\n<\/p>\n By children, yours if lucky, like the girl<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Who finds you here and lies down by your side.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n