April Hours, National Poetry Month, and Four More Weeks of Quarantine: How Are You Holding Up?

Pink Tulips, Woodinville

April Hours – Flowers, Birds, Masks

April is here, finally, though here, it still has felt more like winter than spring – chilly, rainy days in the forties. Washington State has extended its “Stay at Home” order until May 4, so my birthday month may not be very cheerful after all. The US has overtaken the rest of the world in coronavirus cases. Especially hard hit are NYC, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Me, socially distancing with cherry blossoms

Because it’s April, even though we’re socially distancing and (finally) being advised to wear masks, we can still watch birds and enjoy the flowers that continue to bloom despite the news and less-than-welcoming weather. I’ve been practicing taking pictures of the new birds we’ve been attracting with our feeders: juncos, wrens, Stellar’s Jays, flickers, and downy woodpeckers this week. The cherry trees and camellias are in their last days (we had a couple of hailstorms that are hard on the flowers) and early tulips are starting to bloom. Usually we’d go up to Skagit Valley for the Skagit Tulip Festival but it’s been cancelled this year. I also would have been planning a birthday party, but I guess it will wait til next year. The new reality is, we are stuck by ourselves, where we are, until further notice. Luckily, where we are includes the spring rollout of birdsong and blossoms.

Pink tulip magnolias

National Poetry Month

We can still celebrate National Poetry Month during a pandemic, despite the lack of the usual book launch parties and poetry readings. There are still books to buy (support your local bookstore if you can) and there is time to spend on poetry, and even some hope to be found. People are doing readings on Facebook Live (I’ve been enjoying talks on Japanese fairy tales by Rebecca Solnit) and offering readings on YouTube and podcasts instead of in-person. I’ve been writing too many pandemic poems. It seems almost impossible to write a poem about one thing and not have it turn into a pandemic poem, in fact. The coronavirus has saturated the view.

My bio page for Poetry Magazine

Poetry Magazine is offering its April issue for free right now. I really like the picture they chose for my bio page, which is from a visit to the aforementioned Skagit Poetry Festival last year. It reminds me of happier times. Also, if you visit my bio page, click on “Prose by this Poet” and you can read my interview with Matthea Harvey about her apocalyptic book of poetry, Modern Life. Here’ s a peek at my second poem in the April Poetry issue, “Spellcaster,” a little less apocalyptic than “Calamity.”

Spellcaster, from April’s issue of Poetry Magazine

Four More Weeks of Quarantine: How Are You Holding Up?

So, as we face four more weeks of quarantine, how are you holding up? I know some friends who are making cloth masks for friends and family, people who are delivering groceries to older neighbors and relatives, people who are using this time to try a new art form or learn a language, while other friends are practicing the challenging transition to becoming online teachers and homeschoolers. We are all learning to make more things from scratch; friends are exchanging recipes for they have in their pantry as people try to limit trips for groceries. Others are spending time in their gardens – we have planted herb starts and spring peas (which don’t happen here till June). Many of us are donating to new charities because of coronavirus – people who have lost their jobs in the massive wave of layoffs, food banks for people who can’t afford groceries, and Medical Teams International, a personal favorite, who is currently using a mobile truck unit to practice dentistry for free on emergency cases across Seattle.

I am reading books and listening to audiobooks, spending time of the phone with family to check in, trying to come to terms with Zoom, and listening to a lot of music. I’ve tried not to watch too much television or movies at the beginning of this, try to spend some time walking outside or on my stationary bike or dancing around to movie soundtracks (I recommend the new Birds of Prey movie soundtrack.) Of course I am worried about getting this thing – and I’m worried about family and friends who are vulnerable. Every day the news delivers more dead – musicians, artists, nurses and doctors. I try to pay attention to the good works of people during this crisis, not our Federal government’s miserable mismanagement of it. It is unbearable to think too many hours a day about it – even with my limited news consumption, I dream every night about fighting coronavirus, people having it,  trying to solve the puzzle of this virus’s treatment already.

How about you? What are you doing to make it through? I taught my mom Instagram over the phone yesterday, so she could have baby goat and papillon dog pictures to cheer her up. I’m going to try to get outside more as the weather gets a little nicer, as I notice it helps battle the claustrophobia that can come from too many days at home, trying my best to dodge others who are walking dogs or stretching their legs or letting their kids exercise and shriek and run around. Tell me in the comments about your quarantine life in April.