Day 4

Welcome back, forsythia

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A song for a cool March day: Cate Le Bon's "Are You With Me Now?" from the Welsh artist's Mug Museum album. Le Bon's most recent album Reward is worth seeking out. Some other great Welsh music to check out: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci Spanish Dance Troupe; Super Furry Animals's Rings Around the World; Catatonia's International Velvet; Manic Street Preachers's Everything Must Go.

A poem for the approach of spring: If you took walk (taking care to safely distance yourself from fellow pedestrians) over the weekend, then perhaps you noticed crocuses blooming, bursts of yellow forsythia, or red clusters of maple buds. Spring is nearly here. Amy Gerstler's "In Perpetual Spring" calls to mind Alexander Pope's expression that "hope springs eternal" (from his poem "An Essay on Man"). Be on the lookout for more signs of spring!

In Perpetual Spring

BY AMY GERSTLER

Gardens are also good places

to sulk. You pass beds of

spiky voodoo lilies   

and trip over the roots   

of a sweet gum tree,   

in search of medieval   

plants whose leaves,   

when they drop off   

turn into birds

if they fall on land,

and colored carp if they   

plop into water.

Suddenly the archetypal   

human desire for peace   

with every other species   

wells up in you. The lion   

and the lamb cuddling up.

The snake and the snail, kissing.

Even the prick of the thistle,   

queen of the weeds, revives   

your secret belief

in perpetual spring,

your faith that for every hurt   

there is a leaf to cure it.

Works Cited

Gerstler, Amy. "In Perpetual Spring." Poetryfoundation.org, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47501/in-perpetual-spring. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.

Le Bon, Cate. "Are You With Me Now?" Mug Museum, Wichita, 2013.