Day 13

Peach, apple, and cherry blossoms are showing up around my neighborhood.

"...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 tune for today: Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder" is ten minutes of blissful soul jazz. When it's over, you might want to put it on again. The whole album is worth seeking out and is on the "Core Collection" list from The Penguin Guide to Jazz. Check out some more classics on that list here.

A poem for spring's simple pleasures: "Today" by Billy Collins has a few great tricks up its sleeve involving its structure. Notice how Collins has taken a single sentence and arranged it in two-line stanzas that guide the reader at a leisurely pace through the poem. What else is going on here?

Today

BY BILLY COLLINS

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

Works Cited

Collins, Billy. "Today." Poetryfoundation.org. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/40824/today-56d21ebdad746. Accessed 25 Mar. 2020.

Morgan, Lee. "The Sidewinder." The Sidewinder, 1964, Blue Note.