{"id":1307,"date":"2009-11-18T13:44:27","date_gmt":"2009-11-18T18:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wmlinfospot.wordpress.com\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2016-07-20T16:11:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-20T20:11:47","slug":"scratches-a-poem-by-william-bernhardt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/2009\/11\/18\/scratches-a-poem-by-william-bernhardt\/","title":{"rendered":"Scratches, a poem by William Bernhardt"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of Saturday’s Distinguished Author<\/a> event, award recipient William Bernhardt<\/a> read one of his poems, titled “Scratches,” to the audience.\u00a0 The attendees loved it, and so many people wanted a copy that we asked Mr. Bernhardt if we could post it here on Infospot.\u00a0 He agreed – so here, in its entirety, is “Scratches.”<\/p>\n

Scratches<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how it begins;
\nscratches on signs, on blocks
\non a white page. Then the
\nscratches start to dance.\u00a0 They
\nrecombinate, they collect sounds
\nthey call your name.
\nLike so much in childhood
\nthey are ciphers, full of secrets
\nbut once you learn the dance
\nthe secrets of the world
\nand more, are revealed.
\nYou learn to read.<\/p>\n

You learn:
\nmanners from Goldilocks
\ncuriosity from George
\ngluttony from Peter
\nthe importance of nonsense from Alice.
\nYou set sail with Jim Hawkins, raft with Huck
\nrow with Mole.
\nYou learn that love is eternal, from Catherine
\nbut so is madness, says the first Mrs. Rochester.
\nJeeves helps you laugh
\npoetry helps you cry
\nAtticus shows you how to do both, with courage.<\/p>\n

Not only have the scratches shaped the world
\nthey have shaped your world.
\nThey have taught you how to see.
\nNow you need never be afraid.
\nNow you will never be alone.
\nIn the darkest night
\nin the deepest solitude
\nthe scratches will call to you.
\nYou will open the covers.
\nThey will reach out their arms and say
\n“Hey! You thought you were the only one?
\nYou’re not.”<\/p>\n

Copyright 2009 William Bernhardt<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of Saturday’s Distinguished Author event, award recipient William Bernhardt read one of his poems, titled “Scratches,” to the audience.\u00a0 The attendees loved it, and so many people wanted a copy that we asked Mr. Bernhardt if we could post it here on Infospot.\u00a0 He agreed – so here, in its entirety, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,6,9],"tags":[61,128,382,402,555],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-friends","category-news","tag-books","tag-distinguished-author-award","tag-poetry","tag-reading","tag-william-bernhardt"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5897,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/5897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.scranton.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}