{"id":1839,"date":"2026-03-03T15:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marygilliland.com\/?page_id=1839"},"modified":"2026-03-03T15:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:38:33","slug":"wednesdays-with-denise","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marygilliland.com\/?page_id=1839","title":{"rendered":"Wednesdays With Denise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Best American Blog - WEDNESDAYS WITH DENISE: February 28, 2024<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

There are so many reasons to love Mary Gilliland\u2019s latest book Ember Days<\/i>, which will be published on March 1 by Codhill Press. Her title describes the light during both the summer and winter solstice, and her poems reverberate with that same golden brightness. Gilliland is a poet of witness and spirituality, grappling with climate devastation while also interrogating world policies and politics. But maybe the number one reason to love Ember Days<\/i> is the savvy poem \u201cUp with People\u201d which brought me back to that 1970\u2019s singing group of traveling teens funded by corporate America.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

UP WITH PEOPLE<\/p>\n

I remember the opening salute, the hours<\/p>\n

of taping and reshoot, our show\u2019s chief sponsor<\/p>\n

Bab-O. I\u2019d had to apply. It floors me now:<\/p>\n

the ticked questionnaire on American<\/p>\n

history, the patriotic essay I composed so<\/p>\n

eagerly, a stalk among the standing waves of grain.<\/p>\n

During commercial breaks for cleanser, I tended<\/p>\n

my tender self-regard, inked in every anacrostic<\/p>\n

in the book, won all spelling bees. Deadlines colder<\/p>\n

than zero Kelvin in the outer regions before sleep<\/p>\n

carried dust I could not fathom. Three. Two. One.<\/p>\n

and camera rolled, the rest of the cast singing out.<\/p>\n

They could not work me into their permanent<\/p>\n

Youth Corps. Some they did, gathered at<\/p>\n

the 30-year reunion, unbroken on the moving<\/p>\n

belt of hearty cereal, furtive sex, and overtime.<\/p>\n

I would have failed at reminiscing between<\/p>\n

dances, blank on what I\u2019d looked like, what I\u2019d said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For those of you too young to remember, you can hear the group\u2019s signature song here:<\/p><\/div><\/div>

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