Day 29

Daily assignment chart - Week of 4/6

Saw some azaleas on my run this morning!

"...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 today: On 10 April 1970, Paul McCartney officially announced the break-up of the Beatles. Here are a few songs from their last two albums: "Let it Be" from the album of the same name (and the last album they released) and the suite of songs on side 2 of Abbey Road (the last recordings they did). Apologies for the delays between songs on the suite; it's really best heard on record or cd!

       

A poem for today: Maggie Dietz's "Leave No Trace" evokes the trail etiquette expected of visitors to Franconia Notch (or any state or national park, really). It made me think of the coronavirus etiquette we're trying our best to practice these days.

Leave No Trace

No gate, no main entrance, no ticket, no ranger. Not far
From where Frost once raised chickens and ill-fated children, near
Where the Old Man’s glacier-hewn face though bolstered to
Its godlike roost by rods and turnbuckles slid
From our fledgling millennium into oblivion,
You can cross the Pemigewasset on a bridge
Then, compass-north but southbound on the trail,
Ascend an old grassed-over logging road
To the carved out collarbone of Cannon Mountain.

This is Lonesome Lake. How you go from here
Depends on why you’ve come: to out a spruce grouse
Or listen for the whee-ah of a Bicknell’s thrush;
For a breezy picnic or a midlife crisis,
A long haul or a day trip to the cascades.
 
Bring for your purposes only what you need:  
Salmon jerky, a canteen or Camelbak,
Band-aids, a ratchet and strap, a roughed-up heart.
Bring sunblock, a notebook, the Beatles, Beyoncé,
The Bhagavad Gita, a Bible, some Hitchens or Hegel.
       
However long you stay you must leave nothing.
No matchbox, no pole-tip, no grommet, no cup.
Carry in and out your Clif Bar wrappers,
Your fear of bears and storms. Keep the rage
You thought you’d push through your boot-soles into the stones,
The grief you hoped to shed. If you think you’ve changed,
Take all your changes with you.
                                                              If you lift
An arrowhead from the leaves, return it. Pocket
No pinecone, no pebble or faery root. Resist
The painted trillium even if its purple throat
Begs to be pressed between your trail guide’s pages.

Works Cited

The Beatles. "Let it Be." Let it Be, Apple, 1970.

--"You Never Give Me Your Money," "Sun King," "Mean Mr Mustard," "Polythene Pam," "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight," "The End." Abbey Road, Apple, 1969.

Dietz, Maggie. "Leave No Trace." Poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/leave-no-trace. Accessed 10 April 2020.

Day 28

Daily assignment chart - Week of 4/6

The magnolias are blooming!

"...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 poem for today: Elizabeth Bishop's "A Cold Spring" captures a whole season in three stanzas packed with assonance, dazzling imagery, and surprising rhymes.

A Cold Spring

FOR A FRIEND IN MARYLAND

Nothing is so beautiful as spring.

-Gerard Manley Hopkins

A cold spring:

The violet was flawed on the lawn.

For two weeks or more the trees hesitated;

the little leaves waited,

carefully indicating their characteristics.

Finally a grave green dust

settled over your big and aimless hills.

One day, in a chill white blast of sunshine,

on the side of one a calf was born.

The mother stopped lowing,

taking a long time to eat the afterbirth,

a wretched flag,

but the calf got up promptly

and seemed inclined to feel gay.

The next day

Was much warmer.

Greenish white dogwood infiltrated the wood,

each petal burned, apparently, by a cigarette butt,

and the blurred redbud stood

beside it, motionless, but almost more

like movement than any placeable color.

Four deer practiced leaping over your fences.

The infant oak leaves swung through the sober oak.

Song sparrows were wound up for the summer

and in the maple the complementary cardinal

cracked a whip, and the sleeper awoke,

stretching miles of green limbs from the South.

In his cap the lilacs whitened;

then one day they fell like snow.

Now, in the evening,

a new moon comes.

The hills grow softer. Tufts of long grass show

where each cow flop lies.

The bullfrogs are sounding,

slack strings plucked by heavy thumbs.

Beneath the light, against your white front door,

the smallest moths, like Chinese fans,

flatten themselves, silver and silver-gilt

over pale yellow, orange, or gray.

Now, from the thick grass, the fireflies

begin to rise:

up, then down, then up again --

lit on the ascending flight,

drifting simultaneously to the same height,

exactly like the bubbles in champagne.

(Later on they rise much higher.)

And your shadowy pastures will be able to offer

these particular glowing tributes

every evening now throughout the summer.

A song for today: Aimee Mann's "Save Me" from the Aimee Mann-dominated Magnolia soundtrack.

Works Cited

Bishop, Elizabeth (1911-1979). "A Cold Spring." The New Yorker, 31 May 1952: p. 31.

Mann, Aimee. "Save Me." Magnolia, Reprise, 1999.

Day 27

Daily assignment chart - Week of 4/6

A poem for today: D.H. Lawrence's "The Enkindled Spring" teems with visual imagery. The first stanza brilliantly captures the look of budding trees. Try out your own tribute to spring in three ABAB quatrains.

The Enkindled Spring

BY D. H. LAWRENCE

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,

Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,

Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between

Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration

Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze

Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,

Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among

This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed

About like a shadow buffeted in the throng

Of flames, a shadow that's gone astray, and is lost.

A song for today: Joni Mitchell's "Little Green" is track 3 (side A) from her amazing Blue album. For more Joni, check out some of these classics from the late-60s to mid-70s: Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, For the Roses, Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, and Hejira.

Works Cited

Lawrence, D.H. (1885-1930). "The Enkindled Spring." Poetryfoundation.org. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44578/the-enkindled-spring. Accessed 8 April 2020.

Mitchell, Joni. "Little Green." Blue, A&M, 1971.

Day 26

Daily assignment chart - Week of 4/6

"...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 today's Pink Moon: Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" from his final studio album of the same name. All three of Drake's albums and a posthumous collection of outtakes are worth checking out (my personal favorite is Bryter Layter). Hopefully, it's a clear night to check out the full moon! 

A poem for today: Mary Oliver's "The Sweetness of Dogs" from her Dog Songs collection. The speaker and her dog Percy head out to admire the full moon.

THE SWEETNESS OF DOGS

What do you say, Percy? I am thinking
of sitting out on the sand to watch
the moon rise. It’s full tonight.
So we go

and the moon rises, so beautiful it
makes me shudder, makes me think about
time and space, makes me take
measure of myself: one iota
pondering heaven. Thus we sit, myself

thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s
perfect beauty and also, oh! how rich
it is to love the world. Percy, meanwhile,
leans against me and gazes up
into my face. As though I were just as wonderful
as the perfect moon.

Works Cited

Drake, Nick (1948-1974). "Pink Moon." Pink Moon, Island, 1972. 

Oliver, Mary (1935-2019). "The Sweetness of Dogs." Dog Songs. Penguin Press, 2013.