April 2nd and Ninety Degrees

April is National Poetry Month. Our April Fool's Day in Bedford, Texas blossomed into summer with Opening Day of Ranger's baseball and the first pitch a balmy (!) ninety degrees. Let's see what poet Edna St.Vincent Millay had to say about April.

Spring

To what purpose, April do you return again?

Beauty is not enough

You can no longer quiet me with the redness

of little leaves opening stickily

I know what I know.

The sun is hot on my neck as I observe

The spikes of the crocus

The smell of the earth is good

It is apparent that there is no death.

But what does that signify?

Not only under ground are the brains of men

Eaten by maggots

Life in itself

Is nothing.

An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs

It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,

April

Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

A Little Madness in the Spring - Emily Dickinson

A little Madness in the Spring

Is wholesome even for the King

But God be with the Clown -

Who ponders this tremendous scene -

This whole Experiment of Green -

As if it were his own!

I shall ponder with you the madness of spring (and in Edna's case the decision to use the word maggots in her poem) as I rest my weary bones (from garden projects) in a patio chair.