{"id":1347,"date":"2016-06-14T08:43:38","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T12:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2016-06-14T08:45:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-14T12:45:47","slug":"the-vigil-by-jennifer-angelina-petro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=1347","title":{"rendered":"The Vigil, by Jennifer Angelina Petro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vigil<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Vigil<\/p>\n

By<\/p>\n

Jennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

vigil (n.)<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em><\/span>1200, “eve of a religious festival” (an occasion for devotional watching or observance), from Anglo-French and Old French\u00a0vigile”watch, guard; eve of a holy day” (12c.), from Latin\u00a0vigilia”a watch, watchfulness,” from\u00a0vigil\u00a0“watchful, awake, on the watch, alert,” from PIE root\u00a0*weg-\u00a0(2) “be lively or active, be strong” (source also of Old English\u00a0wacan\u00a0“to wake up, arise,”\u00a0wacian\u00a0“to be awake;” Old High German\u00a0wahta\u00a0“watch, vigil;” see\u00a0wake<\/strong><\/a><\/span>\u00a0(v.)). Meaning “watch kept on a festival eve” in English is from late 14c.; general sense of “occasion of keeping awake for some purpose” is recorded from 1711. <\/em><\/p>\n

—From the Online Etymology Dictionary.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Vigil<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were watchful, alert to every loud sound,<\/p>\n

We were lively, active, and strong\u2014we were awake<\/p>\n

So fully our guard dropped and we wept in the arms of strangers;<\/p>\n

We were watchful, full of rage, full of questions,<\/p>\n

We were a living sea of sorrow that crashed the shores<\/p>\n

Of common humanity, and we were strong, and we were awake,<\/p>\n

And we were alert to every loud sound,<\/p>\n

And we rose on steps and shoulders, and we rose on songs and speeches,<\/p>\n

And we rose on embraces from strangers\u2014<\/p>\n

We were awake\u2014watchful, alert to every sound\u2014<\/p>\n

We lit one another\u2019s candles, we swayed in silence, swayed in song,<\/p>\n

We shouted out to high heaven the names of the stolen,<\/p>\n

We whispered to hell the name of the thief,<\/p>\n

We held signs and wrote in chalk on pavement<\/p>\n

Messages of solidarity, we assembled forests of candles,<\/p>\n

Altars of light and tears, altars of hopelessness turned<\/p>\n

Into hope somehow, someway, some holy<\/p>\n

And desperate way.\u00a0 And we were watchful, and we were awake,<\/p>\n

And we were alert to every loud sound, and we were lively,<\/p>\n

And we were strong, we were active, and we sang knowing<\/p>\n

This was no eve of a festival\u2014it was the eve of funerals<\/p>\n

And heartbreak, families just finding out their loved ones<\/p>\n

Were gay and gone\u2014<\/p>\n

This was the homily of tears,<\/p>\n

This was the vigil of no tomorrow,<\/p>\n

This was the night of never ending darkness lit up<\/p>\n

By hearts and candles,<\/p>\n

This was the right and human thing to do,<\/p>\n

This was the pulse of a nation,<\/p>\n

This was the vigil for us all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"vigil<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Vigil By Jennifer Angelina Petro   vigil (n.)\u00a0 1200, “eve of a religious festival” (an occasion for devotional watching or observance), from Anglo-French and Old French\u00a0vigile”watch, guard; eve of a holy day” (12c.), from Latin\u00a0vigilia”a watch, watchfulness,” from\u00a0vigil\u00a0“watchful, awake, on the watch, alert,” from PIE root\u00a0*weg-\u00a0(2) “be lively or active, be strong” (source […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[683,677,670,669,678,522,682],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1352,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}