{"id":7819,"date":"2014-01-26T22:08:54","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T03:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/?p=7819"},"modified":"2014-01-26T22:08:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-27T03:08:54","slug":"30-days-of-love-loves-austere-and-lonely-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2014\/01\/30-days-of-love-loves-austere-and-lonely-offices.html","title":{"rendered":"30 Days of Love: ‘love’s austere and lonely offices’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today’s post is short but sweet, and courtesy of one of the best poets I’ve ever loved: Robert Hayden. \u00a0At times in my life I have been without words: desperately lonely, or bitterly angry, or lost in one of those interior labyrinths we all know so well. Hayden has always been there before me, to get me through.<\/p>\n

Today, as I thought about love, community, and writing, he was there for me once again. The prompt for 30 Days of Love<\/a>\u00a0is to write our stories: of ourselves, of now, of our community. Hayden did all that, far better than I can dream of doing. His work memorialises \u00a0both day-to-day life and \u00a0great historic tragedies, as well as the injustice rained upon a black man in mid-century America. All of these are fitting, given today’s prompt.<\/p>\n

The poem below is one that reminds — every time I read it — of how little we know about love.<\/p>\n

Those Winter Sundays ~ Robert Hayden<\/p>\n

Sundays too
\nmy father got up early
\nand put his clothes on in the blue black cold,
\nthen with cracked hands that ached
\nfrom labor in the weekday weather made
\nbanked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.<\/p>\n

I’d wake and hear the
\ncold splintering, breaking.
\nWhen the rooms were warm, he’d call,
\nand slowly I would rise and dress,
\nfearing the chronic angers of that house,<\/p>\n

Speaking indifferently
\nto him,
\nwho had driven out the cold
\nand polished my good shoes as well.
\nWhat did I know, what did I know
\nof love’s austere and lonely offices?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is short but sweet, and courtesy of one of the best poets I’ve ever loved: Robert Hayden. \u00a0At times in my life I have been without words: desperately lonely, or bitterly angry, or lost in one of those interior labyrinths we all know so well. Hayden has always been there before me, to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[723,22],"tags":[1349,11,1181,1187,262,1190,486],"class_list":["post-7819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-30-days-of-love","category-poetry","tag-30-days-of-love","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-poetry","tag-robert-hayden"],"yoast_head":"\n30 Days of Love: 'love's austere and lonely offices' - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today's post is short but sweet, and courtesy of one of the best poets I've ever loved: Robert Hayden. \u00a0At times in my life I have been without words:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2014\/01\/30-days-of-love-loves-austere-and-lonely-offices.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"30 Days of Love: 'love's austere and lonely offices' - 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