Spring is beautiful
how many times will it be recited?
like the pledge of allegiance
indivisible and mumbled
- Igloowhite, Spring is beautiful
A worthy question, how many times indeed? At the risk of being obvious I'd say: As long as it is true.
Spring IS beautiful in the most fundamental way. The emergence of new life from the low frigid ebb of winter is one of life's most primal lessons. Any individual can experience the beauty of Spring directly, using their own senses. There is no need for assistance or interpretation of Spring's beauty, just objective, first hand observation. Spring actually is beautiful and virtually every healthy creature knows it.
Of course, spring isn't beautiful everywhere, or for everyone. The fact that spring is beautiful is true globally, but not necessarily locally. Many truths are like that though, not directly observable from where you are sitting, but absolutely true none the less. The mathematical certainty of Euclidean geometry is not obvious to those who haven't studied it, but their lack of understanding doesn't diminish the fundamental truth of Euclid's theorems.
Similarly, the inherent beauty of Spring may not be readily apparent to one who cannot see it, the inhabitants of a
dismal inner city for example, or, to one who is too damaged psychologically or emotionally to experience the life that surrounds them. This would include those who are too angry to objectively experience and understand how their attitude influences their perception.
spring is beautiful
like a house on fire heat and color
and when it is over you don't have a home
Spring isn't beautiful when you're angry. Nothing is beautiful when you're angry. There are a whole lot of angry people in our world right now, and most of them don't think Spring is beautiful. Most of them think Spring sucks because it distracts them from their anger, distracts others from listening to the latest obsessive recalculation of their anger, the latest infinitesimal parsing of outrage that their anger has revealed to them. Spring distracts them from their belief that nothing is, or ever has been, as important as their anger. And that really makes them angry.
Anger feeds on anger. It draws other anger to itself like a magnet and weaves an angry knotted net, patiently plaiting the warp and weft of anger's many threads into a dark and corrosive cloak.
Baghdad and bullets, gay marriage, environmentalism, diversity, cowboys and good old boys and globalism, right to life, right to choose, the radical right and the liberal left... A pox on all their houses. There's a rich pallet of angers from which to choose in this contentious world, a good righteous wrath readily available to all, free of charge. You don't even have to justify your anger anymore. Anger is a drug and our world is full of addicts. If you're angry you have plenty of company.
The bad news about anger is that it isn't a good thing. It isn't good for you intellectually, physically or psychologically. It isn't good for those close to you and it isn't good for your community, state or country either. Anger is an extra-rational impulse, a physiological switch that was designed to be flicked on at moments of crisis, to aid in fight or flight. Anger doesn't work very well as a 24/7 filter through which to perceive the world and on which to base your decisions.
spring is beautiful like a drunken uninsured Mexican
driving his Impala into a street fair
killing three and injuring nine
The bad news about anger is that it's a destructive force and that it prevents you from seeing what's in front of your face. Anger prevents you from seeing that Spring really is beautiful.
Spring is beautiful because the buds still open
Spring is beautiful because the earth still warms and the birds return and the sun still shines
Spring is beautiful because life is still better than death.
Spring is beautiful because you can still let go of your anger.
Spring is beautiful, go find it.
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Notes
- My thanks to igloowhite for the powerful and insightful poem. None of my comments are intended to impugn the poem or the poet in any way. The phenomenon of irrational anger is a prevalent one, and the poem captures it in a poignant way.
- The Quotes from igloowhite's poem Spring is beautiful have been used under E2's interpretation of fair use, and the original author's permission has been requested.