{"id":20480,"date":"2017-01-04T09:01:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T17:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/writers-weir-the-best-the-day-offered\/"},"modified":"2017-01-04T09:01:19","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T17:01:19","slug":"writers-weir-the-best-the-day-offered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/writers-weir-the-best-the-day-offered\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers’ Weir: The Best the Day Offered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sudden cold wind<\/p>\n

blows all the trash cans over<\/p>\n

in one mean gust.<\/p>\n

Garbage flies all down the street.<\/p>\n

\n

All wrong, I think,<\/p>\n

as the gulls descend on the presentation<\/p>\n

of fluttering gifts spread out conveniently.<\/p>\n

They mob in a screaming chaos of glee,<\/p>\n

wings beating,<\/p>\n

pink and orange bare feet<\/p>\n

sliding and dancing on the ice.<\/p>\n

\n

Frequent pounding hail squalls<\/p>\n

cause the whole flock to lift wings,<\/p>\n

gracefully rising to meet the next one,<\/p>\n

not seeking shelter<\/p>\n

like I do.<\/p>\n

\n

Sailing in place, watching<\/p>\n

for the next opportunity,<\/p>\n

they swoop side to side<\/p>\n

on silent stiff wings<\/p>\n

cutting the cold air<\/p>\n

and the weak winter light<\/p>\n

that was the best the day offered.<\/p>\n

\n

Hailstones pound their little heads<\/p>\n

until they settle, facing the wind,<\/p>\n

feathers and attitudes unruffled.<\/p>\n

The biggest marbles<\/p>\n

are gobbled up casually<\/p>\n

with perfect acceptance<\/p>\n

of the circumstances.<\/p>\n

Everything seems a gift<\/p>\n

to scavenger gulls.<\/p>\n

\n

A woman stands on the dock,<\/p>\n

alone, but gathering a blizzard of gulls.<\/p>\n

I can see it from across the harbor.<\/p>\n

They know her, and her bag of presents.<\/p>\n

Same time every day.<\/p>\n

\n

Laura Kaltenstein is a Sitka artist. Her mediums are acrylics, beads, and quilting; she also teaches art to young children, sometimes writes poetry, and has been leading nature tours in Southeast Alaska for more than 20 years.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sudden cold wind blows all the trash cans over in one mean gust. Garbage flies all down the street. All wrong, I think, as the gulls descend on the presentation of fluttering gifts spread out conveniently. They mob in a screaming chaos of glee, wings beating, pink and orange bare feet sliding and dancing on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20480"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}