{"id":246,"date":"2007-09-06T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-06T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=246"},"modified":"2007-09-06T07:56:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-06T12:56:00","slug":"in-memorium-grace-paley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2007\/09\/06\/in-memorium-grace-paley\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memorium: Grace Paley"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
I met Grace Paley–activist, teacher, former state poet, feminist extraordinaire, lover of life–when she spoke on a panel I had organized in the early 1990s. I was in my early twenties. She seemed ageless. Grace Paley was magnificent, humble, and real. <\/p>\n

Robin Morgan wrote a beautiful tribute to Paley’s life<\/a>, invoking Paley’s signature style, for the Women’s Media Center. The New York Times <\/span>obituary is here<\/a>. And, for those who have yet to have hear it and for those who already miss it, you can still listen to her voice here, on NPR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are two of my favorites, from her New and Collected Poems<\/a><\/span>: <\/p>\n

1. My dissent is cheer \/ a thankless disposition \/ first as the morning star \/ my ambition: good luck \/ and why not a flight \/ over the wide dilemma \/ and then good night to sad forever.<\/p>\n

2. A stranger calling a dog whistled \/ and I came running though I am not an afghan \/ or a highclass poodle and not much like a city boy’s dog with a happy wild tail and red eyes \/ The stranger said excuse me, I was calling my dog not you \/ Ah I replied to this courteous explanation \/ Sometimes I whistle too but mostly for fear of missing the world I am a dog to whistlers.<\/p>\n

We’ll be whistling for you, Grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met Grace Paley–activist, teacher, former state poet, feminist extraordinaire, lover of life–when she spoke on a panel I had organized in the early 1990s. I was in my early twenties. She seemed ageless. Grace Paley was magnificent, humble, and real. Robin Morgan wrote a beautiful tribute to Paley’s life, invoking Paley’s signature style, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1901,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21941],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1901"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}