{"id":350,"date":"2012-04-17T23:26:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T07:26:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=350"},"modified":"2012-04-17T23:27:21","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T07:27:21","slug":"allen-braden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=350","title":{"rendered":"Allen Braden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Gogh\u2019s Noon<\/em>: Rest from Work (after Millet)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His wheatfield redistributes the light evenly
\nover the pair of strawstacks, of shoes and sickles
\nset off to one side which belong to the couple
\ndrowsing in the dark gold shade of afternoon.
\nOnly the wagon in the background is singular
\nthough two oxen are loitering near enough
\nto rub dumbly against its iron-shod wheels.
\nLess distinct in the distance is a crop of wheat,
\nas high as a wainscot between earth and sky,
\nstill not cut or bundled or loaded for winnowing.
\nNo question of the tasks which await them,<\/p>\n

those two in the foreground who are faceless
\nas cattle and as serene in their exhaustion.
\nAn observer can practically feel the prickling
\nof the severe stubble where they are at ease,
\nthe itch of chaff when their sweat evaporates.
\nHow masterfully each subject mirrors itself,
\nthe man and woman in a cotton tunic or smock,
\nthe way even one work shoe parallels the other
\nand sickle blades curve into quotation marks
\nas if to complete some statement on the balance
\nbetween art and whatever is perfectly ordinary.<\/p>\n

–Allen Braden<\/p>\n

Allen Braden\u00a0<\/a>is the author of\u00a0A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(University of Georgia) and\u00a0Elegy in the Passive Voice<\/em>\u00a0(University of Alaska\/Fairbanks), winner of the Midnight Sun Chapbook Contest. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from Artist Trust of Washington State as well as the Emerging Writers Prize from\u00a0Witness<\/em>\u00a0magazine, the Grolier Poetry Prize, the Dana Award in Poetry and other honors. Former poet-in-residence for the Poetry Center and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he lives in Lakewood, Washington.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Van Gogh\u2019s Noon: Rest from Work (after Millet)   His wheatfield redistributes the light evenly over the pair of strawstacks, of shoes and sickles set off to one side which belong to the couple drowsing in the dark gold shade … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,8,1],"tags":[117,118],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}