{"id":4175,"date":"2026-07-04T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T12:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=4175"},"modified":"2026-07-05T15:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T15:55:30","slug":"sunday-verses-homecoming-at-harper-creek-7-5-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=4175","title":{"rendered":"SUNDAY VERSES: &#8216;Homecoming at Harper Creek&#8217; (7\/5\/2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s called Decoration Day, \/ when all the kinfolks gather \/ to tend the final resting places \/ of relatives already gone home.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4176\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4176\" style=\"width: 129px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4176\" src=\"http:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek-300x226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"129\" height=\"97\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek-300x226.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek-1025x772.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek-768x579.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek-1536x1157.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Harpers-Creek.jpg 2047w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4176\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8216;HARPER CREEK&#8217; (2004), from pen and ink original, by T. G. Adams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>That sounds kind of odd, \/ as if the dead had any say \/ in going or staying \u2014 \/ along the way, maybe, but not in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>We who are left behind \/ are the ones with the choices \u2014 \/ not to live or die, \/ but to remember or forget those others.<\/p>\n<p>Decorations of all kinds \u2014 \/ unlike dates chiseled in granite \u2014 \/ are ephemeral, \/ for even fine silk flowers finally fade.<\/p>\n<p>What stands is the old fence \/ of locust posts and barbed wire \/ that turns worst memories away \/ so our best ones stay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s called Decoration Day, \/ when all the kinfolks gather \/ to tend the final resting places \/ of relatives already gone home. That sounds kind of odd, \/ as if the dead had any say \/ in going or staying \u2014 \/ along the way, maybe, but not in the long run. We who &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=4175\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SUNDAY VERSES: &#8216;Homecoming at Harper Creek&#8217; (7\/5\/2026)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4175"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4194,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4175\/revisions\/4194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}