April is the Cruelest Month

A lot of people like to play April fool jokes today. I did as a kid. Then I grew up. My mother died of cancer 4o years ago today. She was 49. Income tax day is looming. I've already sent them their due. My wedding anniversary is also on April 15, 21 years.

It is the poet T.S. Elliot who first said April is the cruelest month...from The Waste Land written in 1922. Here is part of it:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

Hopefully April will go a little easier on us this year. Flowers begin to bloom, birds sing, leaves of grass turn green. Trees blossom and provide shade for all creatures. After all it is the season of renewal, right?