Not Always What They Seem

Pink Daffodils and Almost Hidden Butterfly
For Palm Sunday to coincide with April Fool's Day, as it does today, is a most unusual event in the calendrical world. The rate of occurrence is four times (counting today) since 1900, fifteen times, going back to 1600.

An important lesson shared by both holidays:
things are not always what they seem!
Sometimes It Happens
Sometimes it happens that you are friends and then
You are not friends,
And friendship has passed.
And whole days are lost and among them
A fountain empties itself.

And sometimes it happens that you are loved and then
You are not loved,
And love is past.
And whole days are lost and among them
A fountain empties itself into the grass.

And sometimes you want to speak to her and then
You do not want to speak,
Then the opportunity has passed.
Your dreams flare up, they suddenly vanish.

And also it happens that there is nowhere to go and then
There is somewhere to go,
Then you have passed.
And the years flare up and are gone,
Quicker than a minute.

So you have nothing.
You wonder if these things matter and then
As soon as you begin to wonder if these things matter
They cease to matter,
And caring is past.
And a fountain empties itself into the grass.

by British poet Brian Patten (b. 1946)
best known as one of the Liverpool Poets

see previous Quotidian posts:
All Souls: From Dust Thou Art
"Believe In Your Own Full Moonlight"
"Brush With Greatness"

and "Happy Batday" on The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker

P.S.
2018 ~ that crazy year when
Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentine's Day
and Easter coincided with April Fool's Day!

April 2019 ~ the daffodils again!

All Souls: From Dust Thou Art

"Life is a constant battle
between the heart and the brain.
But guess who wins.
The skeleton."

a deep thought by Jack Handey
from The Lost Deep Thoughts





















Sam's Goblin
acrylic, 1997

The Likelihood
At some time or other the dust will change its mind.
It will cease to be dust.
It will start over again.
It will reconstitute itself,
become skin,
become a fingernail or perhaps
a heart beating slowly.
Whatever, let's keep our eyes open
in case we miss the moment
of the the dust's rebellion,
and our ears open
for the small whisper of
"I'm fed up being dust," or
"I long to be an apple polished
against the sleeve
of a child I'd forgotten!"
It might be the dust buried beneath frost speaking,
or the dust of old machinery,
or the melancholic dust of friends
who believed in dying.
It might even be the dust of moths
God left uninvented.

Against a pile of such dust I have weighed
the likelihood of you returning.

by British poet Brian Patten (b. 1946)
best known as one of the Liverpool Poets

see previous Quotidian posts:
"Believe In Your Own Full Moonlight"
"Brush With Greatness"

and "Happy Batday" on The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker

P.S. November 2017 ~ -Related Article for
Día de los Muertos:
"A Brief History of the ‘Danse Macabre’"

Believe In Your Own Full Moonlight

"And what do you remember of your own full moonlight?"
~ Contemporary American artist Cooper Edens (b. 1945)

******************

"What use dragging the body and all
its loose desires and its ghost - connections
through days wounded by doubting,

the purpose is ecstasy --

believe in it, undo the mischief
night's wardens have created."

lines from "The Purpose is Ecstasy" in Grave Gossip
by British poet Brian Patten (b. 1946)
best known as one of the Liverpool Poets
(see "Happy Batday" on The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker)

******************
The picture above is featured on the cover of Cooper Eden's beautiful book With Secret Friends. You can see a couple more of his whimsical illustrations on my blog post "Butterfly Collection."