the sun mocks me, fierce
and too warm for late winter.
spring break? these essays
await, my break too
short, this winter too weak, and
everything as wrong
as the trees leafing
in mid-march where winter once
ended in april.
instead, we are all
intoxicated: shattered
records and pollen
counts and no rain and
daffodils spent, and growing
grass--and all too much
too soon, and i am
ready for none of it. this
weak winter beat me,
all around. this week,
i surrender, giving up
not in, submitting
not to the work but
to the job. the weak winter
bested me but lost
to spring, which loses
too soon now to summer--rough,
this cycle that seems
as unseemly as
the essays that stalked me through
spring break in this year
of a soft season
strong enough to teach me my
place in all of it.
Love it, Greta, as always.
ReplyDeleteMy fave is "weak winter..." beautiful.
Wonderful. Thank you.
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ReplyDeleteThunderstorms last night,
ReplyDeletePower off? Alarm working?
Still the work persists.
My eye slides on to
CM. New post from Greta!
Work waits. I compose.
Edited to fix syllable count
This soft season reflects the soft thinking I'm seeing on their final essays. Thanks, Greta! I'm going to do all of my comments in haiku form.
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ReplyDeleteFrod, what the fuck are you doing with the deletes? I mean, I delete one or two a day from you, but I've never seen a thread like this. Are you having a stroke? Should I call someone?
Delete:}
The RGM
No, I'm writing something for a general audience on the Vernal Equinox, parts of which I might use the next time the news people ask me about it. It's not easy: please delete the others.
DeleteI was just teasing, Frod...
Delete(On the 17th try...I wouldn't do this for anyone but you, Greta.)
ReplyDeleteI've come to dread the Vernal Equinox for a different reason. I am the only professional astronomer at my university, which is the only public university in a city of 500,000 people. Every Spring I therefore get asked to explain the Vernal Equinox on the local TV news. I simply cannot do it, because a TV audience simply cannot understand it.
The Vernal Equinox is officially the beginning of Spring, in Earth's Northern Hemisphere. This is traditionally on March 21, but it can be anytime between March 19 and March 23. This is because a year isn't exactly 365 days long: it takes 365.2422 days for Earth to orbit the Sun.
The Vernal Equinox occurs when the Sun appears to cross from the southern sky into the northern sky. The term "Vernal Equinox" also refers to the position in the sky at which this happens. I’ve probably lost half the audience already by this point.
To explain: Earth does orbit the Sun. Since we're on Earth, it looks to us like the Sun is moving through the sky throughout the year. This is separate from the Sun's daily apparent rising and setting because of Earth’s rotation. At the Vernal Equinox, the Sun appears to cross the path in the sky above Earth’s equator, as it goes from south to north.
(I know I haven't mentioned the ecliptic, or that the Vernal Equinox is where the ecliptic crosses the Celestial Equator, as the apparent motion of the Sun goes from south to north, as well as the time at which this happens. That's too much extra complication.)
A TV audience simply cannot understand this, because they need to hold at least three unfamiliar concepts in their minds simultaneously. Few of them can manage even two. Showing a drawing only confuses them more. It's worse than the Doppler effect.
Of course, their self-of-steam will not allow them to accept this. I therefore get yelled at, if from no one else from the TV news person who contacts me. And of course, the attitude of TV news is always, "You're so privileged, we're going to put you on TELEVISION! So you must drop everything without warning this instant and attend our every, EVERY need!" I therefore hide in my lab to ride out the Vernal Equinox. Likewise for the Summer Solstice, the Autumnal Equinox, and the Winter Solstice. I get plenty of UFO reports, too...
I try to get rid of the news people by telling them, "The Vernal Equinox isn't newsworthy: it happens every year." This does not work. It's much like trying to placate a student by saying, "A B is a good grade: it means good."
DeleteFroderick, you're so sweet to post and delete so many messages to give the illusion that someone actually reads my insignificant (and, let's face it, bad) haiku.
DeleteThat's why you did it, right? :)
Quite right, Greta. It's much like how your cat says "I love you," by bringing you dead mice and birds.
Delete(I have the best cat in the world. He brings me bottles of scotch.)
(After 5 more takes last night, here's what I have now.)
ReplyDeleteWhat is the Vernal Equinox? We all know that Earth goes around the Sun. We’re on Earth, though. So, when we look to the Sun, it appears to us to move through the sky.
The Vernal Equinox is the date and time when the Sun appears to us to move from the southern sky into the northern sky. The term “Vernal Equinox” also refers to the point in the sky where this happens.
The Vernal Equinox is officially the beginning of spring, in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. Traditionally, this is March 21. It can be anytime between March 19 and 23. This is because Earth doesn’t orbit the Sun in exactly 365.0 days. It takes 365.2422 days. This is also why we have Leap Years.
So, the Vernal Equinox is the first day of spring, in the Northern Hemisphere. It still can take a month or more for the weather to warm up, because it takes time for Earth’s atmosphere and oceans to get much warmer.
(The sheer difficulty of writing this has convinced me that humans are just not smart enough to be trusted with nuclear weapons.)
Pretty good, if the fact that I think I understand most of it is any measure. The only part that's puzzling me is the northern sky/southern sky distinction. Is there a dividing line somewhere that I missed? From the perspective of the single big east-facing window in my apartment (which faces a river, so there's a good deal of clear sky), the sun appears to be lower in the sky in the winter, and to be spending more time farther overhead as spring approaches. But that's about as far as I get.
Delete(@Cassandra: The Celestial Equator is the path projected into the sky above Earth’s equator. The Vernal Equinox is the time when the Sun appears to cross the Celestial Equator, going from south to north. That’s too complicated for a TV audience, since it requires them to keep in mind simultaneously at least two unfamiliar concepts, the Celestial Equator and the Sun’s apparent annual motion. Here's take 23, then.)
DeleteWhat is the Vernal Equinox?
The Summer Solstice is when the Sun is highest in the sky, at noon.
The Winter Solstice is when the Sun is lowest in the sky, at noon.
The Vernal Equinox is the beginning of spring, in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. This is because the Vernal Equinox is the time halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice.
It can take over a month after the Vernal Equinox for the weather to get warmer. This is because it takes time for Earth’s atmosphere to warm up.
The Vernal Equinox is traditionally on March 21. It can be anytime between March 19 and 23. This is because Earth doesn’t orbit the Sun in exactly 365.0 days. It takes 365.2422 days. This is also why we have Leap Years.
(I can provide a nice graphic, or even an animation, to be displayed when the first five sentences are being spoken, of where the Sun appears in the sky at noon on the Summer Solstice, the Winter Solstice, and the Vernal Equinox.)
(I did a few more takes last night. Here’s take 27.)
DeleteThe Vernal Equinox is halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice.
The Winter Solstice is when the Sun at noon is as low in the sky as it ever gets.
The Summer Solstice is when the Sun at noon is as high in the sky as it ever gets.
The Vernal Equinox is therefore the beginning of spring, in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. The Vernal Equinox is traditionally on March 21. It can be anytime between March 19 and 23. This is because Earth doesn’t orbit the Sun in exactly 365.0 days. It takes 365.2422 days. This is also why we have Leap Years.
It can take over a month after the Vernal Equinox for the weather to get warmer. This is because it takes time for Earth’s atmosphere to warm up.
(I can provide a nice graphic, or even an animation, to be displayed when the first three sentences are being spoken, of where the Sun appears in the sky at noon on the Summer Solstice, the Winter Solstice, and the Vernal Equinox.)
"The Wasteland" for our time! (or at least for this particular very strange winter/spring semester, which has been hard in ways I can't quite pinpoint, and I don't think I could have predicted, but which you've captured quite well Greta, though I'm still not quite sure of my own place in all of it)
ReplyDeleteHmm. . .maybe I should write book blurbs (just leave out all the stuff in parens)