{"id":558,"date":"2013-07-21T17:22:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T21:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=558"},"modified":"2013-07-21T17:23:40","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T21:23:40","slug":"a-poem-by-howard","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=558","title":{"rendered":"A Poem by Howard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Spirits of the Trees<\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Howard Hornstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0 24 Dec. 1996<\/p>\n<p>Typed on his computer while dealing with his ALS.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>I realize now how much I miss these borrowed hours,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Crossing old familiar fields,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Taking time at last to climb<\/em><br \/>\n<em> And reminisce among the flowers<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Growing on the ridge.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Little friends, climbing fences, smiling faces<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Barely stopping for a second<\/em><br \/>\n<em> At the top of wooden gates,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Chatting in our hiding places,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> And the trees would listen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Barefoot boys down at the brook, chasing after<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Little frogs and baby trout,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Shouting as they dashed about<\/em><br \/>\n<em> In terror and our peals of laughter<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Echoed in the trees.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And certain trees were always begging us to climb,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Daring us to swing from vines,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Giving us the sweetest berries;<\/em><br \/>\n<em> We would hardly give them time<\/em><br \/>\n<em> To ripen in the sun.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The first time on this ridge we sat for half the day,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Startled by the splendor of<\/em><br \/>\n<em> The woods and meadows far below,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Hearing gentle voices say,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> \u201cYou found our secret place.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>By three majestic oaks we built a fire ring,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Summer nights we shared our secrets,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Talked of girls and dreams we had,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Wondered what our lives would bring,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> And the trees would listen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I return here often though the years go by,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Summoned by some hidden power,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Many times I wonder why,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> And once again the voices sigh,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> \u201cIt\u2019s because we love you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Spirits of the Trees By Howard Hornstein\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0 24 Dec. 1996 Typed on his computer while dealing with his ALS. &nbsp; I realize now how much I miss these borrowed hours, Crossing old familiar fields, Taking time at last to climb And reminisce among the flowers Growing on the ridge. Little friends, climbing fences, smiling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":11,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-558","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/558\/revisions\/561"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}