{"id":192,"date":"2024-12-12T22:21:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T22:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/?page_id=192"},"modified":"2024-12-12T22:21:07","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T22:21:07","slug":"john-alan-sweeney","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/john-alan-sweeney\/","title":{"rendered":"John Alan Sweeney\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>(May 10, 1966)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m always writing my father\u2019s obituary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a kid, late at night, I\u2019d wonder why&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I missed him so much. I\u2019d rise, hearing&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>the cold splintering, breaking. \u201c<em>Love<\/em>\u2019<em>s<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>austere and lonely offices,\u201d Robert&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hayden wrote. Though I remember it&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>Those<\/em>\u2026\u201d. The\u201c<em>Love\u201d<\/em> was implied. I&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>wake up with chest pains missing the&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>steadiness my father\u2019s life provided. What&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>to say about a guy like him? Only I could&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>tell you. I\u2019m the only one to do it, To&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>describe the ugly capris he wore against&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(better) judgement, kind words he spoke to&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>a listening ear, peace he effortlessly exuded,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it all revisionist history? An idealized&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>past? It can\u2019t be, he\u2019s not dead yet. There&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>hasn\u2019t been a funeral, but there\u2019s been&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>grieving. God, I miss him. He lives down<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>in Pungo. Right down the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(May 10, 1966) I\u2019m always writing my father\u2019s obituary. As a kid, late at night, I\u2019d wonder why&nbsp; I missed him so much. I\u2019d rise, hearing&nbsp; the cold splintering, breaking. \u201cLove\u2019s&nbsp; austere and lonely offices,\u201d Robert&nbsp; Hayden wrote. Though I remember it&nbsp; \u201cThose\u2026\u201d. The\u201cLove\u201d was implied. I&nbsp; wake up with chest pains missing the&nbsp; steadiness &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/john-alan-sweeney\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">John Alan Sweeney\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30187,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/192\/revisions\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/benjipoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}