Thursday's Tale: Certain Central Park Tulips Now Have a Georgia O'Keefe Look

This is the first year that I do not have tulips in my garden as I was not able to plant new bulbs in 2020 because of the pandemic. In general, my tulip bulbs don't winter-over well even with my diligent garden winterizing. I truly miss having them this year but memories of my tulips sustain me. I have had such amazing varieties during the many years of my having a garden. Be that as it may when it comes to not having tulips in my garden this year, I have been able to appreciate them in tree pits as well as in Central Park. The tulip seen in the photo atop this entry is one I saw there five days ago.

Friday's Fact: Today is the ninth day for National Poetry Month 2021.

It's Day 9 of 2021's National Poetry Month and as always, Odgen Nash (whose poem is featured in the text-based image atop this entry) has got this. I think of his poem often, and yesterday was far from an exception, upon my spotting a blooming tree (featured within the next sequence of photographs) when I was in Central Park.

I confess that I'm having trouble id-ing this beauty and plan to reach out to the Park's Department for help, but in the interim, any TLLG blog readers out there know the type of tree pictured here?

On another note I have a few trees in my rooftop garden, including a flowering one known as a Crabapple Tree.

April's Inspiration

I recently discovered the poem, "Spring," by Edna St. Vincent Millay, which is posted atop this entry, and because we are now in National Poetry Month, I'm calling attention to it, on some levels, it reminds me of what T.S. Eliot has said re the month of April, and it is posted directly below.

I've published posts re Eliot's quote including ones from 2019, 2018 and 2011 and because I'm familar with his darker interpetation of what this month means, I wasn't surprised to read the words of Edna St. Vincent Millay when it comes to April.

However, I wonder if E.B. White might've been surprised to hear her words about this month, given what he wrote about this poet in his mini New Yorker essay, "WRITER AT WORK" (published in 1927).

A Couple of Thoughts Re Session 63 & 64 (Tuesday's Truths WK 182)

MUTTS'S CHARACTERS ARE FEATURED THROUGHOUT MY  BLOG

For this 182nd segment of my Tuesday's Truths series, I confess that (in the midst of this coronavirus  pandemic) it has been hard for me to focus on my projects, which I find distressing.

In terms of this blog, I had big goals set aside for 2020, which I mentioned at the onset of the new year, but now it seems I'm having a great struggle to think about anything but the impact of COVID-19. Like Earl, the dog featured in the Mutts comic strip atop this entry, I'm questioning how to clear my mind and focus on other mattes besides the #ClapBecauseWeCare tributes that I've participated in since two days after they began this past March.

The tributes and the reasoning behind them are very important and I'm glad to pay homage to these events and to the people for whom we do them, but I recognize, I must get back to focusing on my writing projects as time is marching on with out me.

Going forward re this blog, I hope to continue to draw attention to the #ClapBecauseWeCare efforts, but also get back to what I was trying to accomplish pre-COVId-19.

Easter Sunday 2020

In a recent post on my personal Facebook Page, I made a commitment to share a poem a day during the month of April in honor of this being National Poetry Month.

In the event the text of this poem too small or too pixelated within the golden backdrop that I created as an image, here's a copy of Oliver's poem:

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it glides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

Because it is now Easter morning, I chose The Sun, by Mary Oliver, for today's selection to post there but wanted to share it here too. Re this poem, Robin Bates writes, "I have periodically turned to Mary Oliver to provide Easter poems, even though she seldom speaks overtly about religion. A number of her lyrics reenact the progress of Easter week, from dark suffering to miraculous release and ecstatic union with the divine. In 'The Sun,' Oliver’s main focus is on the moment of transcendence."

Crabapple Blossoms

MY ROOFTOP GARDEN

The other day (Tuesday, 4-7-2020) in a post on my personal Facebook (FB) Page, I mentioned that I had just remembered that April is National Poetry Month and shared a Mary Oliver, then I made a commitment to post a poem (or lines from a poem) every day (on Facebook) during this month.

Because a strong wind knocked down my crabapple tree last night (as see in the photo atop this entry photo which was also included in a posting story in my Friday evening Facebook post on my business page, I've decided today would be a good time to share the poem Crabapple Blossoms, by Carl Sandburg.

April's ALSO National Kite Flying Month! (Tuesday's Truths Week 80)

It's already the third Tuesday in April, and so for this week's Tuesday's Truths, I'm calling on the figurine featured in the image atop this entry to help me remind peeps that the month of April is National Kite Month. It is also known to be National Gardening and Lawn Month (which I wrote about in a prior entry here on Blogger) as well as being known to be National Poetry Month (which I also discussed in a previous posting here on Blogger).

In any event, according to a web-page, "Every year in April Kite enthusiasts across North America celebrate the history and the future of the world’s favorite pastime by letting their kites fly.  It is a month to celebrate the joy and happiness that comes from letting out the line, letting your kite catch the wind, and letting that kite soar high into the sky."

Of course if you are like Charlie Brown, your joy and happiness can turn into frustration, as evidenced in the Peanuts comic strip (which was evidently published on April 12, 1956) that is posted directly below.

Monday's Memo: April's Also N'tl Poetry Month (ETC)

This past Tuesday, April 3rd 2018, as part of my Tuesday's Truths series, (published here on Blogger) I mentioned in my post that April is National Gardening and Lawn Month.

Today, I'm adding a memo to that entry by reminding you that April is also National Poetry Month. In honor of this fact, I've put an image of Wendell Berry's poem, THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS, atop this posting. I learned of this the poem through Chris Deatherage, the man who designed my website, patriciayoungquist.com. Additionally, as many of you know, Chris also has created other materials for me (including business cards and press releases).

Moreover, he edited and formatted volumes one and two of the Words In Our Beak series (which are pictured below).

VOLUMES ONE AND TWO

A fact worth mentioning during this National Poetry month is that in volume one of this book series there are references to poems, including ones by ones by Joyce Kilmer and Longfellow, poets which I've discussed in prior entries here on Blogger.

In Honor of Mockingbirds & N'tl Poetry Month (which is always April)

This morning a Northern mockingbird, who seemed to be undeterred by the April showers we are having in NYC, paid a visit to my rooftop garden, and alighted upon my Prickly Pear cactus, as seen in the images posted directly above.

The Prickly Pear seems an odd choice as a place to perch, given its sharp needles, but my advice was not solicited by the visiting mockingbird!