Stand and Stare

Alas it is nearly the end of April and I have neglected writing my thoughts to you.

My excuse, weak as it was, I had foot surgery the first of the month and haven’t felt much like doing anything but reading and whining.

April is an interesting month for me first, because my mother’s birthday was last Sunday. She would have been 104 years old, though in the end she wasn’t interested in being that. She was my biggest mentor. I remember that she had a book on the table where she could always reach it—a poem a day. I don’t know if it’s the same one my daughter now has or if it is with my sister.

The second is, April is National Poetry Month. National Poetry Month, a celebration of poetry which takes place each April, was introduced in 1996 and is organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States.

And I almost missed it. My daughter sent me one of the poems for a day this last week.

LEISURE

What is this life’ if full of care

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass

No time to see, in broad daylight

Streams full stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began

A poor life this, if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies

It reminded her of me she said! Do you supposed that I sit and stare mindlessly sometimes?

Or is she remembering lying side by side in the grass watching cloud pictures forming in the sky, or walking in the evening to watch the sunset? Do you remember doing things like that as a child or with your children? Go spend some time this spring enjoying nature. Stand and stare. Or try writing or reading a poem.

One of my favorites I wrote in May 2005

Snowman

There’s a snowman out my window

And I wish he’d go away

I think it’s just disgusting

 That he’s still here in May