{"id":1849,"date":"2017-03-19T07:48:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T13:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/?p=1849"},"modified":"2017-03-19T07:48:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T13:48:28","slug":"fire-poem-linda-jessup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/?p=1849","title":{"rendered":"The Fire &#8211; A Poem by Linda Jessup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-892 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Linda-professional-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"137\" height=\"91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Linda-professional-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Linda-professional-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Linda-professional.jpg 1760w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 137px) 100vw, 137px\" \/>In going through my wife&#8217;s old (unpublished) poems, I came across another I really like:<\/p>\n<p>THE FIRE<\/p>\n<p>Opening the restaurant door<br \/>\nI saw them huddled low<br \/>\nOver the single flame.<br \/>\nMy arrival stirred the embers of conversation<br \/>\nAnd pushed another log into the glow.<\/p>\n<p>Faces reddened in the warmth as tongues<br \/>\nOf eager talk leaped and danced.<br \/>\nLaughter shook the fire of friendship<br \/>\nInto a lively blaze<br \/>\nAnd we held the palms of our souls outstretched<br \/>\nTo catch the comforting heat.<\/p>\n<p>Stick by stick, the stacks of fuel were consumed<br \/>\nThe smoke of mingled satisfaction rising like a prayer<br \/>\nAnd the fire settled into a heap of heartwarming embers<br \/>\nThat each would carefully carry away\u2014to rekindle<br \/>\nAnd draw close in colder times.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Linda Jessup, October, 1996<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In going through my wife&#8217;s old (unpublished) poems, I came across another I really like: THE FIRE Opening the restaurant door I saw them huddled low Over the single flame. My arrival stirred the embers of conversation And pushed another log into the glow. Faces reddened in the warmth as tongues Of eager talk leaped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[18,118],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ranch-stories","tag-linda-jessup","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions\/2369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidmjessup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}