Kiss Today

March
When the Earl King came
to steal away the child
in Goethe's poem, the father said
don't be afraid,
it's just the wind...
As if it weren't the wind
that blows away the tender
fragments of this world—
leftover leaves in the corners
of the garden, a Lenten Rose
that thought it safe
to bloom so early.

from "The Months"
by Linda Pastan
Above and top:
Woodcut illustration for the Month of March
from "The Shepheardes Calender," 1579
by Edmund Spenser, English Poet (1552 - 1599)

The woodcut features two shepherds, Thomalin and Wyllie, discussing the difficulties of love in the springtime and their strategies for courtship in the coming months. Behind them is winged Cupid, and above them is the zodiac symbol for Aries, the Ram. To the left is Love's victim, "entangled [in a fowling net], and unwares wounded by the dart . . . of Cupides arrowe" and to the right is Thomalin fighting with Love, throwing stones to no avail. Of the Sweetness and Sorrow of love, Thomalin concludes ruefully:

Of Hony and of Gaule in loue there is store:
The Honye is much, but the Gaule is more.
Somewhat more hopefully, the following contemporary song finds the reverse to be true:

Kiss today goodbye,
The sweetness and the sorrow.
Wish me luck, the same to you.
But I can't regret
What I did for love,
what I did for love.

Look my eyes are dry.
The gift was ours to borrow.
It's as if we always knew,
And I won't forget
what I did for love,
What I did for love.

Gone,
Love is never gone.
As we travel on,
Love's what we'll remember.

Kiss today goodbye,
And point me toward tomorrow.
We did what we had to do.
Won't forget, can't regret
What I did for
Love

lyrics by by Edward Kleban
from A Chorus Line
music by Marvin Hamlisch

FOR MORE ON THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDAR
SEE MY FORTNIGHTLY BLOG POST:
FEBRUARY 28th, 2010: "KISS TODAY"

ON MY LITERARY BLOG
OF CONNECTION & COINCIDENCE
THE FORTNIGHTLY KITTI CARRIKER