{"id":68437,"date":"2014-03-20T19:28:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T23:28:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=68437"},"modified":"2014-03-21T12:32:07","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T16:32:07","slug":"the-equinox-for-pessimists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/20\/the-equinox-for-pessimists\/","title":{"rendered":"The Equinox Reality Check"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_68441\" style=\"width: 611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/spring.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-68441\" class=\" wp-image-68441\" alt=\"spring\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/spring.gif\" width=\"601\" height=\"253\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-68441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via Giphy<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Feel that? It\u2019s the vernal caress of the equinox, its breeze seeming to whisper, There, there, your misery will soon fade, spring is here, the world is in bloom, cast off your gloves and scarves, put down the whiskey, lower your firearm, you\u2019ve made it out alive.<\/p>\n<p>In 1968, <em>The Paris Review <\/em>published a poem for just this occasion, kind of. Diane di Prima\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/poetry\/4253\/song-for-spring-equinox-diane-di-prima\">Song for Spring Equinox<\/a>\u201d does indeed celebrate the first day of spring\u2014it begins, \u201cIt is the first day of spring, the children are singing\u201d\u2014but it also boldly admits, and indeed seems to bask in, a truth most of us are trying to ignore: things are still really brown outside. As di Prima puts it, \u201cnothing is blooming \/ nothing seems to bloom much around farms, just hayfields and corn \/ farms are too pragmatic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well. Bummer. It\u2019s probably no coincidence that this poem appeared in a fall issue, not a spring one.<\/p>\n<p>Still, you can and should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/poetry\/4253\/song-for-spring-equinox-diane-di-prima\">read the entire poem<\/a>, which unfolds in a kind of free-associative frolic, touching on crossword puzzles, hydrangeas, and pioneers. Consider it a corrective, not a rebuke; any poem that includes the line \u201cwill I hate the Shetland pony we are buying\u201d won\u2019t harsh your springtime buzz too much.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feel that? It\u2019s the vernal caress of the equinox, its breeze seeming to whisper, There, there, your misery will soon fade, spring is here, the world is in bloom, cast off your gloves and scarves, put down the whiskey, lower your firearm, you\u2019ve made it out alive. In 1968, The Paris Review published a poem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[1237,33,13259,7221,165,6525,13260],"class_list":["post-68437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-1237","tag-archives","tag-diane-di-prima","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-spring","tag-vernal-equinox"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Celebrate the First Day of Spring with a Poem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March 20, 2014 \u2013 Feel that? 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