{"id":16150,"date":"2020-05-05T08:42:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T13:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=16150"},"modified":"2020-05-05T09:49:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T14:49:57","slug":"visiting-our-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/16150","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Our Mother"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>2020 Porch Prize Winner in Poetry <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The late afternoon light is reflected<br \/>\nat oblique angles through upright stones<\/p>\n<p>and leafless trees. The snow is knee-deep<br \/>\nbeside the lane where we stand listening<\/p>\n<p>to the catch and release of our breathing.<br \/>\nThe snow blocks our way to her grave,<\/p>\n<p>where we knelt as children in summer,<br \/>\noffering prayers we doubted even then.<\/p>\n<p>Now we study the scudding clouds<br \/>\nand lengthening shadows. And say nothing.<\/p>\n<p>We have learned that words cannot bridge<br \/>\nthe cleft between what was and what is.<\/p>\n<p>Bonded in loss, we reflect in silence.<br \/>\nI would reach out to you, brother, but do not.<\/p>\n<p>Would pray, but cannot. The moment slips<br \/>\ntoward ice, snow, and shadow. As we turn<\/p>\n<p>to go, you walk ahead toward the car arm in arm<br \/>\nwith your wife, leaving me behind.\u00a0 I fear<\/p>\n<p>we will not meet here again, where the spring<br \/>\ngrass has always been mowed by strangers.<\/p>\n<p>I bend, gather gravel from the road, and hope<br \/>\nyou will not see me toss stones one after another,<\/p>\n<p>underhanded, until one stone lands gently<br \/>\nand sinks into the snow that caps her gravestone.<\/p>\n<p>It will be found after the thaw by the caretaker.<br \/>\nHe will brush it away, thinking it nothing.<\/p>\n<h6>Kevin Norwood received BA and MA degrees in English from the University of Virginia, where he took creative writing seminars with Peter Taylor and John Casey. \u00a0He received a law degree from William &amp; Mary, and practices corporate law. His work has been published in\u00a0<em>Litbreak, Natural Bridge,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Wild Goose Poetry Review.\u00a0<\/em>He lives with wife Vicki and rescue pup Lily in Brentwood, Tenn.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2020 Porch Prize Winner in Poetry The late afternoon light is reflected at oblique angles through upright stones and leafless trees. The snow is knee-deep beside the lane where we stand listening to the catch and release of our breathing. The snow blocks our way to her grave, where we knelt as children in summer, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[63,64],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-4cu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16154,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16150\/revisions\/16154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}