The Poetry Reading

The ancient rocking chair sways back and forth like an eccentric pendulum.

Three moppets catapult into the kitchen.

They’re followed by a frenetic puppy who skids into her food dish.

The room smells of freshly cut flowers and dog food.

Mom squats on the lurching chair appropriated by assorted tykes and the dog.

It’s time for “Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight!”

The tale of Bessie and her beloved, Basil Underwood, in Cromwell’s England is our favorite poem.

Well, it’s one of our favorite poems.

The dog squeals as her tail gets squeezed.

We all yell ‘hot dog! because we’re young and not too vociferous.

Little CC tells everybody what to do.

We shout in unison “Curfew must not ring tonight” after each stanza.

We love the sound of it sans meaning.

The multicolored feathers of strange words and flowing rhyme tickle our imaginations.

We’re as excited as crows waiting for trash pickup.

With Bessie we hang on to the large bell’s ringer to stop the sound.

If the big bell rings, Basil will be executed,

“Curfew must not ring tonight!”

Bessie stops the capricious bell.

Basil is pardoned.

The ponderous bell thinks “Omnia vincit amor.”

The old chair continues to rock.

Reference: Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight, published in 1870 by Rose Hartwick Thorpe (1850 – 1939), an American poet. This poem was one of Queen Victoria's favorites.

Martha Incognito

Brief glimpse of a Hermes scarf

As an impeccably coifed and garbed figure

Ducks into McDonald’s back door

She ingests her Big Meal with gusto

Using her Hermes as a chador

Martha developed her fast food craving

During her confinement at Bedford Hills

Being Martha she mulls over potential profits,

Surreptitious silent partner or outright take over?

As she considers more and more scenarios

She indulges in another order of fries and a sundae

This repast stimulates my creative flow

I must get more of this to take out!

Who can venture a guess as to what she might do next?

So far, there has been no M and A activity

Capitalistic machinations, or

hopeless Big Mac addiction?

Vernal Equinox

Spring begins with the vernal equinox on March 20 at exactly 1:32 P.M. EDT. 

The word equinox is derived from the Latin for “equal night” and is used now because the days and nights are of nearly equal length. The vernal equinox is the point at which the center of the Sun passes over the celestial equator from south to north, signaling the start of nature's renewal in our hemisphere. 

After the equinox, the Sun will appear higher and higher in the sky, and length of day will grow longer than the length of night. (Farmer’s Almanac)

Here is a lovely poem welcoming Spring by Swinburne:

For winter's rains and ruins are over, And all the season of snows and sins; The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that wins; And time remembered is grief forgotten, And frosts are slain and flowers begotten, And in green under wood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins. Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) Atalanta in Calydon (1865)

On St. Patrick's Day

On the feast of St.Patrick

Gael wannabes wax nostalgic

Hoisting pails of inferior brew

They spend most of the day in the loo

Whilst old Gaels sip Guinness among the copacetic

Endnote: Dedicated to Paul, my favorite cousin and Guinness connoisseur

Ides of March

The Ides of March has long been considered an ill-fated day. Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 B.C. Historians note that it is likely that a soothsayer named Spurinna had warned Caesar that danger would occur by the ides of March. William Shakespeare included the phrase "Beware the ides of March" in his play Julius Caesar.

The ides were the 15th days of four months (Martius, or March; Maius, or May; Quintilis, or July; and October) in the ancient Roman lunar calendar; they were the 13th in all other months (originally, Aprilis, or April; Iunius, or June; Sextilis, or August; September; November; and December. Ianuarius, or January, and Februarius, or February, were added later). 

The word ides comes from the Latin word idus, which is possibly derived from an Etruscan word meaning "to divide." The ides were originally meant to mark the full Moon (the "halfway point" of a lunar month), but because the Roman calendar months and actual lunar months were of different lengths, they quickly got out of step. The ancient Romans considered the day after the calends (first of the month), nones (ninth day before the ides, inclusive), or ides of any month as unfavorable. These were called dies atri.(Old Farmer's Almanac)

Note: Rather than post an ominous 'Ides' poem, I chose this one by Hafiz on celebration.

Hafiz

Spring and all its flowers

now joyously break their vow of silence.

It is time for celebration, not for lying low;

You too - weed out those roots of sadness from your heart.

The Sabaa wind arrives;

and in deep resonance, the flower

passionately rips open its garments,

thrusting itself from itself.

The Way of Truth, learn from the clarity of water,

Learn freedom from the spreading grass.

Pay close attention to the artistry of the Sabaa wind,

that wafts in pollen from afar,

And ripples the beautiful tresses

of the fields of hyacinth flowers.

From the privacy of the harem, the virgin bud slips out,

revealing herself under the morning star,

branding your heart and your faith

with beauty.

And frenzied bulbul flies madly out of the House of Sadness

to unite with the flowers;

its love-crazed cry like a thousand-trumpet blast.

Hafez says, and the experienced old ones concur: all you really need is to tell

those Stories of the Fair Ones and the Goblet of Wine

Daylight Savings Time Begins

Today is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, time for moving the clocks one hour ahead. The exceptions are Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa. Credit for Daylight Saving Time belongs to Benjamin Franklin, who first suggested the idea in 1784. The idea was revived in 1907, when William Willett, an Englishman, proposed a similar system in the pamphlet The Waste of Daylight. The Germans were the first to officially adopt the light-extending system in 1915 as a fuel-saving measure during World War I. The British switched one year later, and the United States followed in 1918, when Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which established our time zones. This experiment lasted only until 1920, when the law was repealed due to opposition from dairy farmers (cows don't pay attention to clocks). During World War II, Daylight Saving Time was imposed once again (this time year-round) to save fuel.

Daylight Savings Time


by Phyllis McGinley



In Spring when maple buds are red,


We turn the Clock an hour ahead;


Which means, each April that arrives,


We lose an hour 


Out of our lives.



Who cares? When Autumn birds in flocks


Fly southward, back we turn the Clocks,


And so regain a lovely thing--


That missing hour 


We lost last Spring.

Endnote: The history of daylight savings time comes directly from the Old Farmer's Almanac.

Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed Day
celebrates John Chapman, legendary American pioneer and folk hero who planted apple trees across the American frontier. Chapman’s birthday is on September 26, but Johnny Appleseed Day is celebrated today.

I don't have a poem on apple blossoms. But here is a lovely haiku by Issa (1763 - 1828) on cherry blossoms, whose arrival in D.C. we are eagerly awaiting.

In the cherry blossom's shade

there's no such thing

as a stranger.