Before we say goodbye to the month, let's take one last look at April as experienced through different eyes. At least as poet Alicia Ostriker imagines it.
by Alicia Ostriker
The optimists among us
taking heart because it is spring
The optimists among us
taking heart because it is spring
skip along
attending their meetings
signing their e-mail petitions
marching with their satiric signs
singing their we shall overcome songs
posting their pungent twitters and blogs
believing in a better world
for no good reason
I envy them
said the old woman
The seasons go round they
go round and around
said the tulip
dancing among her friends
in their brown bed in the sun
in the April breeze
under a maple canopy
that was also dancing
only with greater motions
casting greater shadows
and the grass
hardly stirring
What a concerto
of good stinks said the dog
trotting along Riverside Drive
in the early spring afternoon
sniffing this way and that
how gratifying the cellos of the river
the tubas of the traffic
the trombones
of the leafing elms with the legato
of my rivals’ piss at their feet
and the leftover meat and grease
singing along in all the wastebaskets
'believing in a better world for no good reason' is better than not believing in a better world. Generally, an optimistic poem - I like it. Thank you, Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteI think of myself as optimistic also, but some days it is hard to maintain that optimism.
DeleteI suppose we must cling to the hope of better things to come; sometimes it is hard, though.
ReplyDeleteExactly. There are days when it requires a supreme effort.
DeleteYou can't go wrong with Alicia Ostriker, a former New York State Poet Laureate . I can imagine her sitting along Riverside Drive in Manhattan, listening to the trombones of the elms (those that are left, anyway), the cellos of the Hudson and the tubas of the West Side Highway. New York City as a dog might experience it.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think the dog has it about right!
DeleteEach of the stanzas are good. It is like April in the city.
ReplyDeleteThe April that she describes certainly has a city air to it.
Delete...spring make optimists out of most of us!
ReplyDeleteIndeed. If you can't be an optimist in spring then when could you ever be one? Probably never.
DeleteWe must all do what we can, I think!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to be an optimist these days; nevertheless, I think it is important to hang on to that optimism and do everything we can to make it the reality.
DeleteAnother good one! :D
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it!
Delete