#268: Make it be spring

"In March I'll be rested, caught up and human." -Sylvia Plath

Dear reader,

I came across this rather relatable meme last night and it made me chuckle hard. I want to be snuggled, not struggle. I’m sure most of us do.

This Saturday, you’ll be receiving the latest Dear Jasmine column, which offers gentle advice and perspective on co-existing with struggles (societal and personal). We are wading through water shortage and overheating, heartbreak and creative ruts. How to stay afloat?

I turned to my go-to The Marginalian for answers, and found a verse to which the composer Gustav Mahler wrote music, which becomes a chorus for Maira Kalman’s book Still Life with Remorse. I’d like to share it with you here:

Dark is life.
Spring is here.
The birds are singing.

Spring is here. There are poems to be written and devoured. There are strangers, shy and vulnerable, waiting to listen to the birdsong hidden in this newsletter, perhaps. The thought of this gives me comfort.

We are all in this together, what this may be. For now, that is enough. It has to be.

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Poetry Corner

Artwork: Poplar Landscape by Georges Gaudion

1. February by Margaret Atwood (Excerpt)

February, month of despair,
with a skewered heart in the centre.
I think dire thoughts, and lust for French fries
with a splash of vinegar.
Cat, enough of your greedy whining
and your small pink bumhole.
Off my face! You’re the life principle,
more or less, so get going
on a little optimism around here.
Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring.

Read the full poem here. (So glad February is over. Ugh)

2. The Republic of Poetry by Martín Espada
For Chile

In the republic of poetry,
a train full of poets
rolls south in the rain
as plum trees rock
and horses kick the air,
and village bands
parade down the aisle
with trumpets, with bowler hats,
followed by the president
of the republic,
shaking every hand.

In the republic of poetry,
monks print verses about the night
on boxes of monastery chocolate,
kitchens in restaurants
use odes for recipes
from eel to artichoke,
and poets eat for free.

In the republic of poetry,
poets read to the baboons
at the zoo, and all the primates,
poets and baboons alike, scream for joy.

In the republic of poetry,
poets rent a helicopter
to bombard the national palace
with poems on bookmarks,
and everyone in the courtyard
rushes to grab a poem
fluttering from the sky,
blinded by weeping.

In the republic of poetry,
the guard at the airport
will not allow you to leave the country
until you declaim a poem for her
and she says Ah! Beautiful.

3. Haiku by Jo Podvin

I would go with you
on that trek up Cold Mountain
but who’d feed the cat?

via The Monthly Tricycle Haiku Challenge

4. I Want To Sleep by Jorge Guillen (Excerpt)
tr. James Wright

Let me enjoy so much harmony
Thanks to the ignorance
Of this being, that is so secure
It pretends to be nothing.

Night with its darkness, solitude with its peace.
Everything favors
My delight in the emptiness
That soon will come.

Emptiness, O paradise
Rumored about so long:
Sleeping, sleeping, growing alone
Very slowly.

Darken me, erase me.
Blessed sleep.
As I lie under a heaven that mounts
Its guard over me.

Read the full poem here.

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Recommended Listening

• Selectric Funeral - Boston Typewriter Orchestra (so cool!)

• Fin De Fete - Linda Smith + Read her interview on Aquarium Drunkard

• Le Iwitian Ourgeuza Gueakelen (unreleased) - Abdallah Oumbadougou

• Haunted World - Real Estate

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Links that mattered

Roy Lichtenstein’s rendition of Van Gogh’s painting The Bedroom At Arles

• Roy Lichtenstein’s rendition of Van Gogh’s painting The Bedroom At Arles ^

• Swayam Parekh’s silent comic Greenhouse illustrates the growth in finding yourself

• The man who collects lost pet posters :’)

• Watch: ‘Visible Mending, a stop-frame animated documentary about why people knit and mend. (Love the idea of ‘emotional repair through wool!’)

• “the fantastic delicacy of the sky” // Essay on the Sky

• The Pixel Painter

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Adulting is hard.

“Deciding what to keep and what to lose is an ongoing, intuitive process that never feels quite finished or certain. The line between “just enough” and “too much” can fluctuate, even if I’m the one drawing it. A slight shift in my mood can transform a cherished heirloom into an obtrusive nuisance in a second.”
-Minimalism is neat but clutter makes it a home (In love with this essay)

“adult life is crazy because you can be going through the most devastating and heartbreaking things while still having to go to work and do the laundry and grocery shopping”
-via Tumblr

“i spent a year in temporary solace. i left a job that was terrible and found a new one. i promised myself i would write. my cat died and made me realize i knew nothing of grief. i came home late in the evening, with the city half dying behind me and wondered if i was doomed to life of restraint or if i was just turning 24.”
-Fawzul Himaya Hareed

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That’s all I can muster up the energy to send out today.

Wishing you a March full of manifestation and magic,
Rohini