The First [Mild] Day of March

"It is the first mild day of March:
Each minute sweeter than before"

"Come forth, and bring with you a heart
that watches and receives."
~ William Wordsworth ~
Major English Romantic Poet
The first of March! It may not be the first mild day of March, but whether the weather be lion or lamb the first of March is here, a day often associated with the New Year and new beginnings. As Wordsworth says, we have before us a day of "blessing," an "hour of feeling." I like the way that he feels free to discount January and February as not quite living up to his expectations:

No joyless forms shall regulate
Our living calendar:
We from to-day, my Friend, will date
The opening of the year.
For Wordsworth, it is the long - awaited month of March that captures "the spirit of the season" and sets the true course for the remainder of the year. He doesn't want his sister, or anyone else, to miss out on his sense of urgency and certainty that "One moment now may give us more / Than years of toiling reason":

Some silent laws our hearts will make,
Which they shall long obey:
We for the year to come may take
Our temper from to-day.
For more on this poem, as well as
"The Tables Turned: An Evening Scene on the Same Subject"
by Wordsworth

and

"The Air That I Breathe,"
by The Hollies

See my new blog post:
"A Heart That Watches and Receives"
on
The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
A fortnightly [every 14th & 28th]
literary blog of connection & coincidence;
custom & ceremony

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

Previous March First Posts
2010: Kiss Me & Kiss Today & Dear March

2011: My Vegetable Love

2012: Love However Brief

2013: Beyond Ideas
Photo from last year ~ March 1, 2013
Thanks George Sfedu

Additional Martisor folklore from George:
Romanians have a beautiful ancient tradition on the first day of March : Martisor (The Amulet). Its name is a diminutive from the name of Martie - the Romanian word for March.

Every year the festive day of March 1 brings back to us renewed hopes, confidence, faith in good fortune and a prosperous life. It is life, spring and the shining sun which win the battle against chilly weather, overcast skies and the nasty, cold days of the “Babele” (old women - the first 9 days in March).

This triumph of rebirth and regeneration cannot be better embodied but in the Martisor which is offered to loved ones in early spring. The white and red thread of this amulet which parents customarily tie around their children's wrist, young men offer to young women, and young women exchange among themselves is believed to bring good luck and health.

"The Martisor is offered early morning on the first day of March; it is worn for 9-12 days, sometimes until the first tree blooms, when it is hung on a flowering branch to bring good luck to its bearer."

Additional Martisor Blog Posts
2014: The First [Mild] Day of March

2015: Wind from a Leaf

2016: Reading the Obituaries

2017: Piano Bar

2018: The Sweetheart Tree

2019: Flora or Fish?

2020: The Once and Future Guenever

2021: Felix Anno Novo

2022: March Begins: The Heart's Desire

2023: Happy Martisor Day!

What You Might Call Beautiful

Photo Booth 1975

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
~ by William Wordsworth ~

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
--Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

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


My friend Marilyn as a Gypsy
Halloween 1973

Letter from Marilyn to Me
Halloween 1975
Right now it’s Halloween night, and I'm in my room writing letters. Remember last year, and the year before? We had good times. I kind of miss seeing all the little kids dressed up, too. We did have a visit from three girls from one of the sororities in costumes with a bucket of candy. But it wasn’t too exciting.

Sunday I went for a long walk. I was depressed and needed to think. Walking always helps me. I walked in a different direction than usual and came to the City Park. I wish you could have been here. It’s hard to explain the feelings going through my heart and the thoughts going through my mind. The park is what you might call beautiful.

There is a covered picnic gazebo, in the middle of which is a four-sided fireplace, all made of stone. There is a pond, a playground, a swimming pool (closed for winter), and a sunken stone structure like a monument. I went down the steps and walked all around but saw no writing until I spied the plaque that had come off or been torn off. It said: “This playground was donated to the children of the city.” I cried because it wasn’t where it should be and because there was trash in the park and because people have to ruin things that are beautiful, and because no one was there, laughing and pushing their little kids on the swings.

I thought, oh, Kit, you and I should be raising our kids in this town, caring about places like this and making other people care. Will that ever happen? Then I picked up a lot of trash and beer cans and Dairy Queen cups and threw them away and felt better and walked on.

While I was walking, I met a girl with long, blond hair feeding apples to a horse. I stopped to pet her dog, and she told me her name was Lucy. Isn’t that cool? I never met anyone named Lucy before. I wonder if she knows a famous poet wrote about a girl with her name? “Bright as a star when only one is shining in the sky . . . .” I bet her mother does.

~ Marilyn Edgerton Primm ~
7 March 1957 ~ 27 November 1993