Thursday, February 02, 2006
Groundhog Day
If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.
We haven't had much of a winter so far in New Jersey - one of the mildest I can recall.
But the jet stream caused it. The series of nor'easter storms that passed through
in January could have dumped plenty of snow & pulled in single digit temps
if the stream had been looping south & flowing north up the coast. When it does
that later in season, we can have winter here all the way to April Fools. I noticed a tree had shed the protective shells from around its buds. That tree won't blossom well.
I always think of joel oppenheimer on Groundhog Day. He loved the occasion, loved all the small "holidays" & celebrated a few that aren't generally observed, like the Anniversary of the Death of Jesse James, & made poems for them. For Joel, Groundhog Day was when it was OK to think about Spring & look forward to a new baseball season. I suppose he figured that dwelling on these during December & January was just tormenting himself. Joel considered Groundhog Day an unofficial poet's day. He would never have observed an official poet's day, the kind of event where some politician issues a "proclamation." Because politicians - even the competent ones - don't know shit from shinola when it comes to recognizing poetry in anything. The rare exceptions only prove the rule. There's one good reason why the world still needs poets.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.
We haven't had much of a winter so far in New Jersey - one of the mildest I can recall.
But the jet stream caused it. The series of nor'easter storms that passed through
in January could have dumped plenty of snow & pulled in single digit temps
if the stream had been looping south & flowing north up the coast. When it does
that later in season, we can have winter here all the way to April Fools. I noticed a tree had shed the protective shells from around its buds. That tree won't blossom well.
I always think of joel oppenheimer on Groundhog Day. He loved the occasion, loved all the small "holidays" & celebrated a few that aren't generally observed, like the Anniversary of the Death of Jesse James, & made poems for them. For Joel, Groundhog Day was when it was OK to think about Spring & look forward to a new baseball season. I suppose he figured that dwelling on these during December & January was just tormenting himself. Joel considered Groundhog Day an unofficial poet's day. He would never have observed an official poet's day, the kind of event where some politician issues a "proclamation." Because politicians - even the competent ones - don't know shit from shinola when it comes to recognizing poetry in anything. The rare exceptions only prove the rule. There's one good reason why the world still needs poets.
