I'm sure that all Midwesterners have moments when they are tempted by warmer locales. You know, the places with blue skies and bodies of water that don't look as gray and angry as a bucket of mop water. I'm tempted in the middle of winter, when it seems like there's no hope, and I drop my keys into a snowbank while balancing a baby on one hip and a bag of groceries on the other.
But it's days like today--37-ish degrees, totally overcast, humid air from melted snow--that I just couldn't live without. To me, this is the ultimate thinking weather. The ultimate weather for poetry, as if those fragmentary thoughts get tangled up in the clouds and don't dissapate like they usually would. I wish our entire winter was like this.
Not surprisingly, it's pretty quiet in my office right now, especially compared to the mayhem I've been immersed in at home. Tonight I'm going to toast Barn Owl Review #1, which is now at the printer. The final lineup is here. Happy 2008 to everyone!
3 comments:
Having lived most of my life in Minneapolis, I know all too well what you're talking about here. Although having been in south Florida briefly in late May and early June (talking steamy jungle here) was enough to cure me of any romantic notions about beaches and palm trees.
Yeah, those days in the upper 30s, with the air full of moisture and the smell of melting snow, are truly wonderful. Tonight here it's going to be cold, supposed to be around 7 degrees by morning, and supposed to be maybe 5 below Wednesday morning, though the forecast says it's supposed to warm up near 40 in a few days. Classic January thaw. And yes, as you said, thinking weather.
Makes me think of the poem by James Wright's poem "As I Step Over a Puddle at the End of Winter, I Think of an Ancient Chinese Governor," the first poem in his book The Branch Will Not Break. A poem that takes me places every time I read it.
Happy New Years, Mary, and cheers to BOR!
Mary:
A wonderful Line-up!
I also hope your boy is feeling better. At that age it is so dificult to communicate what hurts and how to make something better.
Best wishes this new year.
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