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).

Palm Sunday then (2011) and Now (2020)

IMAGE CREDIT

Today is Palm Sunday 2020 also known as the beginning of Holy Week, which will ends on Easter, a season that then lasts for fifty days.

This 2020 Palm Sunday is like none I've ever known as is the case for people throughout the world affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which is forcing (as a precaution) houses of worship to remain closed to help prevent the spread of this deadly virus.

Therefore, for today's entry, please allow me to revisit some content I published re this holiday back in a 2011 blog post titled A&P Catholics.

On 2011's Palm Sunday my morning routine was what I had I have been doing since the year 2002 or 2003: I went to the Seventy-Fourth Street Home (known as The Home) — an ecumenical assisted living center in the Upper Westside of Manhattan, to visit the homebound, and to assist with the distribution of Holy Communion.

However, on Palm Sunday 2011, we had no hosts, and we could only offer palms; not communion.

The reason for this was that there were throngs of people at the mass (where the hosts are picked up prior to coming to The Home) and the priest ran out of hosts.

The residents at The Home were good natured about their loss, and not surprised that there were not enough hosts to go around, for it is common knowledge that throngs of people do show up at mass on Palm Sunday; as well as Ash Wednesday: The "A  & P" Catholics.

"But I bet the church did not run out of offertory envelopes," a male resident named Vincent (who happens to be blind and who can be seen in the next picture) quipped.

VINCENT IS FEATURED IN "THE RESIDENTS"

Vincent is the author of Wino in a Three Piece Suit, and is dry-humored remark had caused another resident Mada (pictured below) to laugh heartily.

MADA IS FEATURED IN THE RESIDENTS

Vincent and Mada are featured in a short video within my Vimeo Library.

It is titled, The Residents, and includes a few of the other folks who were living there  at the time of this Palm Sunday humor.

Today will likely be a difficult time for residents who still live there as well as for residents of any assisted living facility throughout the world, as places like that are on lockdown meaning their loved ones and friends cannot come in to visit them as per the concerted effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Hopefully the faith of those confined to these facilities and the faith of everyone in the world will sustain them this Palm Sunday and beyond.

Saturday's Sentiments

American robins are featured in Volume 3

Early this morning I had my second 2020 face to face encounter with a lone American robin who was spending his/her time in my rooftop garden.

He/she played a bit of peekaboo with me as seen in the image atop this entry. Our encounter caused me to think of the literary critic, Chris Day.

April's Last Day Tuesday's Truths WK 124

CLICK FOR IMAGE CREDIT AND POEM INFO

It's the last day of April, the month T.S. Eliot deemed (in The Wasteland) as "the cruelest" and the month Mary Oliver described (in her poem Blossom which is posted atop this entry) as one where "...the ponds open like black blossoms..."

As for me, I've often referred to April as the month where April Showers take away May flowers as they have been doing this month; evidenced in the following pictures(respectively) of the Spring Green, Red Riding Hood and Day Dream tulip varieties).

OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1

OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1

OTHER TULIPS ARE FEATURED IN VOL 1

Many tulip types (other than the ones featured in this entry) are featured in volume one of my book series, Words In Our Beak, where the stories are set in my rooftop garden and told from the perspective of Cam; a female cardinal.

April 2019 is here...

... and in NYC it arrived with temperatures in the low thirties, prompting folks on the street to make reference to the weather being an April Fool's Day prank.

April is a month that T.S. Eliot proclaimed was the cruelest, that is part of a quotation (posted above) from The Wasteland, which is one I've referenced in prior entries here on Blogger; but today I came upon an interpretation of these words that really spoke to me and I hope they do the same for you, dear reader.

In an article for Node in the Global Mind, Chris Day responds to the question, What did T.S. Eliot mean when he said that April is the cruelest month (in his poem, The Waste Land)? Day states the following:

"Let's look at the first seven lines of the first stanza:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

In the northern hemisphere, April is clasically associated with spring. This is classic Eliot topsy-turviness. April is cruel? How can April be cruel? It's spring; with flowers and mild weather and sex and love in the air. 

He's giving us an insight into a mind that doesn't revel in these things as might be expected. 'breeding/Lilacs out of the dead land' is a very heavy, depressed way to describe the blooming of flowers. He sees the same things as everyone else, but there is no joy there. 'mixing/Memory and desire, stirring/Dull roots with spring rain;' a sense of loss and longing, of being rooted in the past, and spring re-awakening memories of things that have passed. 

By comparison; 'Winter kept us warm' 'forgetful snow;' these things suggest a state of comfortable emotional hibernation.

An old literature teacher once put it thus; when your arm is numb, you don't feel it. But when the blood flows again, and the pins and needles come, suddenly you know about it. It's not (emotional) numbness that hurts; it's the return of feeling.

Anyone who has dealt with long-term depression can probably feel the connection to what Eliot is describing here, and it does a fantastic job of leading in to the rest of the poem, which deals excrutiatingly with depression and memory. 

In summary; April is the cruelest month because the life and color of spring throws one's depression into stark relief and forces painful memories to surface."

Day's interpretation of the first seven lines of Eliot's stanza rings true for me on a very personal level they remind me of  a poem by Emily Dickinson, which is about her first encounter with a robin in any given new year.

April 2018's Last Day: Was T.S. Eliot right?

As April comes to a close for the year 2018, I'm thinking about the T.S. Eliot quote that's featured in the image atop this entry. Most folks know April is a month associated with the adage, "April showers bring May flowers."

However, it's been my experince in terms of my rooftop garden that April showers TAKE AWAY May flowers, which is something I've discussed in prior entries here on Blogger, including ones which you may reference by clicking here as well as here.

These past thirty days have been trying times (weather wise) for the flora I grow here and two weeks ago, Monday, April the 16th was certainly no exception. NYC's April showers on that day were more like April's torrential downpours.

April is N'tl Lawn & Gardening Month (Tuesday's Truths WK 78)

VOLUMES ONE AND TWO

Welcome to my seventy-eighth "segment" of my Tuesday's Truths series which happens to coincide with the first Tuesday in the month of April. In the United States of America, this month is considered to be National Gardening and Lawn Month.

A gardening related web-page states "Every April communities, organizations, and individuals nationwide celebrate gardening during National Garden Month. Gardeners know, and research confirms, that nurturing plants is good for us: attitudes toward health and nutrition improve, kids perform better at school, and community spirit grows. Join the celebration and help to make America a greener, healthier, more livable place!"

Gardeners are not the only ones who improve the quality of their lives by spending time in their garden. Wild birds, such as Cam the cardinal who visits my rooftop garden also know the benefits of "hanging out" in a garden. 

She shares many of the benefits re spending time in a garden throughout both volumes of her book series, Words In Our Beak. (their covers can be seen in the image atop this entry). 

Volume two is relatively new to the market, and while it is a book that people will enjoy at anytime, I think that National Lawn and Garden Month is a perfect time to read it.

This is because (as the press release* states) in volume two, "... Cam relates how structural renovations and two major weather storms bring change to the urban garden ecosystem she calls home and how those changes affect both the plantings that give it life and the birds who visit it." 

PRESS RELEASE VOLUME TWO

*This press release was created by Chris Deatherage. As you may recall (from previous posts), he is the one that formatted and edited both versions of Words In Our Beak. And you may also recall that Chris designed my web-site patriciayoungquist.com. He has updated the site with great information re the book series and I highly recommend that you take a look at it.

ADDENDUM FALL 2018: 

The digital versions of Volume One within the Words In Our Beak book series that are mentioned in this entry may only remain available for a limited time, but hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can now be found wherever books are sold.

MY BOOK SERIES

Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books. Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 2021:

When the third volume of the hard-cover version of Words In Our Beak was released, I withdrew from promoting my former versions of Words In Our Beak. 

The very first one is an iBook and went into Apple's book store in 2015.

This was followed by an ePub version...

... that is available on Amazon and was also published in 2015.

Subsequently, Words In Our Beak's digital versions were published as a soft-cover book (with slight variations) by MagCloud in 2017.

Its press release can be read by clicking here.  

Now with the release of BIRD TALES....

... I've been advised to make mention of my early versions of volume one of Words In Our Beak, they do vary ever so slightly in content from the hard-cover version of volume one.

As of this addendum, I do not intend to create digital or soft-cover versions of Words In Our Beak Volume Two or Words In Our Beak Volume Three.

It's National Grandparents Day!

It's National Grandparents Day! The holiday falls each year on the first Sunday after Labor Day. It was initiated at the grassroots level by West Virginian Marian Lucille Herndon McQuade (seen in the image atop this entry) with the behind-the-scenes support of her husband Joseph L. McQuade.

This photograph is from a web-page, which discusses a number of interesting facts regarding  National Grandparents Day; including the truism that "it's not a holiday invented to sell cards and flowers."

April is the cruelest month?

Today is the last day of April for the year of 2016. As most folks know, it is a month associated with the adage, "April showers bring May flowers." 

Throughout my years as a gardener, I have made the observation that April showers TAKE AWAY May flowers, and I've written about this a number of times, including an entry I made here on Blogger in 2012.

I've also written about another fact regarding April, which is an observation made by T.S. Eliot: "April is the cruelest month . . . Winter kept us warm, Covering earth in forgetful snow, feeding a little life with dried tubers." 

I was initially reminded (in 2011) of Eliot's quote by a resident of a home where I was doing volunteer work. And indeed in this year of 2016, April has been a cruel month for me, for two persons that I've known since the 1980's have died. I referred to this fact in the post I made this past Tuesday here on Blogger.

By having an interest in people, birds and flora, which are all part of creation that passes away, I am bound to experience the pain of loss, when any living entity passes from this life.

"another year over AND a new one just begun . . . " PART TWO-E (July 2012)

Today's entry here on Blogger is part two-E of a series of posts pertaining to a year-end review for special occurrences in my rooftop garden for the year 2012 (the schedule for this series is described in part one as well as part two-A of this topic) and in today's entry I will be reviewing the month of July for the year 2012.

Meanwhile, in my review for the "events" which occurred in my garden for the month of April 2012 , I brought up the fact that T.S. Eliot was known to have said, "April is the cruelest month . . . " 

And although April 2012 had been far from being the "cruelest month" in my garden this year, the month of July 2012, whilst it was exceptional because it marked the beginning of an array of birds (such as the one seen in the image atop today's blog entry) coming to visit my garden; was filled with weather related conditions that resulted in the death of some of the things as well as causing an extreme "sickness" in others, which I grow, and you will see that as I proceed with this review.

As for the image atop today's entry, it shows a mourning dove making him/herself at home in the container which houses my Acer shirasawanum's (Aka Autumn Moon tree).

In bygone years, I had heard the "voices" of mourning doves singing in my garden when alighting on this tree's container; hence I took the picture at a vantage point through the window of my door in an effort to not startle the bird.

"another year over AND a new one just begun . . . " PART TWO-B (April 2012)

Under "normal" circumstances, regarding this blog, Tuesday's posts are "reserved" for "directing" readers to my posts on tumblr, in other words, usually, if it's Tuesday, it must be tumblr! However, if you have been reading my entries on Blogger these past few days, you will recall that today has been "reserved" for part two-B of my 2012-2013 year in review (re events that occurred in my garden) as I stated in describing my schedule re part one and part two-A of this series of "review" posts.

Today's series begins with the events in my garden for April of 2012, April, the month T.S. Eliot referred to as "the cruelest month," saying, "April is the cruelest month . . . winter kept us warm, Covering earth in forgetful snow, feeding a little life with dried tubers . . . ". 

"Here we go round the prickly pear . . . "

My succulents (pictured above) are having a great time with Lady Prickly Pear, a new arrival to my indoor succulent garden. Various figurines, as you may recall, from my previous posts here on TLLG, as well as on nybg's (New York Botanical Gardens) tumblr, come and go in my succulent garden, but, while they are here, they always add an atmosphere that causes my succulents to thrive.

As you can see in the image at the top of today's post, a few of my succulents seem to be dancing around Lady Prickly Pear. Moreover, early this evening, I thought I heard them gleefully quoting one of the stanzas from T.S. Eliot's 1925 poem, The Hollow Men, which, as you may know, is far from joyous. 

But joyous my succulents were, as they surrounded Lady Prickly Pear, singing the following famous stanza:

"Here we go round the prickly pear,

Prickly pear, prickly pear

Here we go round the prickly pear

At five o'clock in the morning"

Thank goodness my succulents were not singing at five o'clock in the morning, but perhaps it was there way of remembering T.S. Eliot. My succulents know that Elliot has been mentioned in a number of blog posts here on TLLG, including one this past April, where I referenced his famous observation that "April is the cruelest month", and, they also know that yesterday marked the thirty-seventh year and one week anniversary of his death, January 4th, 1965. 

WEDNESDAY'S WISDOM: "If cats could talk, they probably wouldn't ."

Halloween is a mere six days away (including today) and while it is a favorite time of humans, "who excitedly plan their costumes of spooks, vampires and monsters, in anticipation of (it), cats, particularly black cats, have little cause for celebration this month,", says Franny Syufy (in her article, October: Black Cat Month: The Perils of Halloween, which you may read in full by clicking here).  

If indeed the fate of some black cats  on Halloween is as bleak the aforementioned article indicates, this may explain why the painted cat rock in the upper-right hand corner has such a pensive expression on his face. It seems one never knows what is going on in the minds of cats.

My friends who have cats seem to be in agreement with a quote that claims, "If cats could talk they probably wouldn't, " which is attributed to Nan Porter.

A & P Catholics

Today is Palm Sunday,"the sixth and last Sunday of Lent, and beginning of Holy Week",  which ends on Easter, a season that then lasts for fifty days, which this year will be June 12th 2011. Therefore, if you have not gotten your Easter cards for those near and dear to you, there is still time, so please take a look at the selections I have for this occasion in the store-front of my web-site.

The cards are lovely for Passover  too, which also begins this week, at sundown tomorrow, April 18th, 2011, and goes until April 26th 2011. Both of these holidays take a certain amount of spiritual preparation, and can catch one "off guard" when the holiday arrives, no matter what good intentions are involved in being ready to observe the holiday and extend good wishes to others.

My NYC Terrace Garden Spring Cleaning: Opened 62 Presents, Welcomed 2 New Arrivals

BEFORE:

AFTER:

AND A LOT OF FUN IN BETWEEN:

Yesterday, April finally relented and gave into Spring. Perhaps she heard me bring up the "cruelest month" quote from T.S. Eliot the other day, and said, "oh not that  bit again . . . " because yesterday's spring-like weather certainly made up for any ill feelings regarding April. I was able to unwrap all my herbs, plants, shrubs, and trees that had been fitted in winter-gear early last December when they were winterized. It was like unwrapping Christmas presents — 62 of them.

"April is the cruelest month . . . Winter kept us warm, Covering earth in forgetful snow, feeding a little life with dried tubers."

"April is the cruelest month . . . Winter kept us warm, Covering earth in forgetful snow, feeding a little life with dried tubers."


Standing in the doorway that leads to my urban terrace garden and looking at my plants, herbs, trees, and shrubs, I am reminded of this T.S. Eliot's quote because the bleakness of this year's April, in New York City, has ruled (weather  wise) — evidenced in the photograph at the top of this blog entry — where one can see that the things which I grow in my terrace garden, in New York's Upper Westside, are beginning to "pop out" of hibernation.