{"id":3702,"date":"2023-04-21T01:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T05:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/?p=3702"},"modified":"2023-04-21T09:05:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T13:05:02","slug":"krosschell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2023\/04\/21\/krosschell\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Series: March into April; Product; Morning, Late February"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jim Krosschell\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

March into April<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cI have an appointment with spring.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Google informs me
\n<\/span>that none of the two million words of Thoreau\u2019s Journal
\n<\/span>offer any description, drawing,
\n<\/span>or meticulous tracking of the emergence,
\n<\/span>in spring, of the crocus.
\n<\/span>Pity.
\n<\/span>I would have liked to compare
\n<\/span>his feelings with mine.
\n<\/span>I would have liked to exceed his joy
\n<\/span>in even one small way,
\n<\/span>for if I plan it right,
\n<\/span>I can meet spring\u2019s true and lovely sybil
\n<\/span>not merely for a week
\n<\/span>of walks between Walden and Concord
\n<\/span>but for a month or more,
\n<\/span>March and April, when
\n<\/span>the distance between houses
\n<\/span>of two hundred miles, not two,
\n<\/span>makes a double spring. (Or prolongs winter.)<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I also walk, and in the yarded, tended city
\n<\/span>I look intently for her spears
\n<\/span>of purple, white, and yellow
\n<\/span>pushing directly out of dirt
\n<\/span>and stabbing the eye,
\n<\/span>soft and hard at once.
\n<\/span>Well, perhaps I have exceeded his joy.
\n<\/span>He writes much of love, nothing of sex.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

When I walk in Maine
\n<\/span>he is at my side.
\n<\/span>We don\u2019t find too many signs
\n<\/span>of the strife among people.
\n<\/span>Nor will we find crocus for a while.
\n<\/span>There\u2019s not enough light and heat yet
\n<\/span>to bud in her bed. Cold keeps her safe
\n<\/span>until she\u2019s ready.
\n<\/span>But she will arrive, in April,
\n<\/span>in the natural course of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

For whatever reason
\n<\/span>he could not (or was not allowed to)
\n<\/span>find sexual love.
\n<\/span>He did find love in general human kindness,
\n<\/span>and of course in chipmunks and perch, orchids and trilliums.
\n<\/span>Perhaps that\u2019s a better way to understand death.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

But nature is changing now, unreliable.
\n<\/span>Spring comes earlier and earlier.
\n<\/span>Our flowers bloom several weeks ahead of his.
\n<\/span>A quarter of the plants he recorded
\n<\/span>have perished from the earth,
\n<\/span>especially the cold-loving wildflowers.
\n<\/span>And now the crocus too is rare,
\n<\/span>lunch for the mice and chipmunks,
\n<\/span>who, nearly-tame, have colonized
\n<\/span>our lawns and sit down with them like diners.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Plants in the northeast need winter,
\n<\/span>a chilling period of rain and snow and ice,
\n<\/span>as perhaps do I.
\n<\/span>How many walks do I have left?
\n<\/span>How many stabs of vigor?
\n<\/span>Whence the thrill of emerging from February?
\n<\/span>Will spring still \u201ccome to the window to wake me\u201d
\n<\/span>and climb into my bed?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Product<\/span><\/h3>\n

for Bill McKibben<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The word was invented
\n<\/span>when English was young:
\n<\/span>from <\/span>productum<\/span><\/i>, Latin, something brought forth,
\n<\/span>merely meaning, then, the result of x times y,
\n<\/span>until the nineteenth century, full of iron,
\n<\/span>disfigured life, nature, language altogether,
\n<\/span>hard and brutally, but not yet ironically,
\n<\/span>which the twenty-first neatly takes care of,
\n<\/span>as vast wealthy hordes of us leave our fruitful careers,
\n<\/span>but not our cultural training in being productive.
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(can\u2019t just rest, you know, must do stuff)
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0gardens, libraries, pools\u00a0 \u2192 \u00a0 the accounterments of castles
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pickleball, golf, regattas\u00a0 \u2192 \u00a0 the proxies of one-upmanship
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0travel, shopping, dining\u00a0 \u2192 \u00a0 the mementos of consumption
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0painting, pottery, poetry\u00a0 \u2192 \u00a0 the redemptions of capitalism
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0charity, boards, memoir\u00a0 \u2192 \u00a0 the canonizations of birthright
\n<\/span>One poor Dutch-American schmuck (me)
\n<\/span>reviewing his output at age seventy-two,
\n<\/span>still blames the Father (John Calvin)
\n<\/span>who said, on his deathbed,
\n<\/span>\u201cWhat! Would you have the Lord find me idle when He comes?\u201d
\n<\/span>Yes! (I wish?) At least take a moment,
\n<\/span>for (let me break it gently to you all)
\n<\/span>the dark Lord is already burning up the sky,
\n<\/span>and even the civilized things you plan to do
\n<\/span>further consume Our Eaarth.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Breathe in now while we can.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember the Proto-Indo-European root \u2013
\n<\/span>per<\/span><\/i>, forward, <\/span>deuk<\/span><\/i>, to lead \u2013
\n<\/span>and get out our checkbooks,
\n<\/span>fill up our calendars,
\n<\/span>and re-write Act Three
\n<\/span>of the coming catastrophe.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Morning, Late February*<\/sup><\/span><\/h3>\n

The sun is still low in the southeastern sky,
\n<\/span>but slipping through ash trees an omen of May
\n<\/span>alights on my pale winter face like a flame.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Remain still.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t think it, don\u2019t mull it, don\u2019t chew it, don\u2019t try<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to foretell<\/span><\/p>\n

the snow that will fall by the end of the day,
\n<\/span>the doom of the carbon engulfing our realm,
\n<\/span>the house on a ledge by the sea in my dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember that we get our manna of joy
\n<\/span>administered only in crumbs, out of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

*Morning, Late February has previously appeared in\u00a0Panoply<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jim Krosschell\u00a0   March into April \u201cI have an appointment with spring.\u201d Google informs me that none of the two million words of Thoreau\u2019s Journal offer any description, drawing, or meticulous tracking of the emergence, in spring, of the crocus. Pity. I would have liked to compare his feelings with mine. I would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spire-2023-issue"],"yoast_head":"\nPoetry Series: March into April; Product; Morning, Late February - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - University of Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2023\/04\/21\/krosschell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poetry Series: March into April; Product; Morning, Late February - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - University of Maine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jim Krosschell\u00a0   March into April \u201cI have an appointment with spring.\u201d Google informs me that none of the two million words of Thoreau\u2019s Journal offer any description, drawing, or meticulous tracking of the emergence, in spring, of the crocus. 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