Poem for the Equinox and Sakura

At the Equinox
By Arthur Sze

The tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars.
I have no theory of radiance,

                but after rain evaporates
off pine needles, the needles glisten.

In the courtyard, we spot the rising shell of a moon,
and, at the equinox, bathe in its gleam.

Using all the tides of starlight,
                we find
                vicissitude is our charm.

On the mud flats off Homer,
I catch the tremor when waves start to slide back in;

and, from Roanoke, you carry
                the leafing jade smoke of willows.

Looping out into the world, we thread
                and return. The lapping waves

cover an expanse of mussels clustered on rocks;
and, giving shape to what is unspoken,

                forsythia buds and blooms in our arms.

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It's only a couple of hours till the earliest spring since the mid-1800s, and I feel odd being so enthusiastic about it since we really had no winter to speak of -- it's the lack of light that bothers me in winter far more than cold and snow, other than not liking to drive in the latter. Unsurprisingly, Daniel slept quite late, so I did my work in the morning, then took him to Bagel City for lunch, where we met my father since my father's previous lunch plans fell through. We got bagels for the rest of the week -- apparently Daniel's breakfast of choice at college even though on the meal plan he could get hot breakfasts -- and stopped to do various chores like picking up prescriptions. Adam went home with Maddy after sending me a hastily-typed, non-auto-corrected text message that said Paul had agreed to "puke" him up, which definitely made me do a double take.

So I took Daniel home to play Shin Megami Tensei and went out to take a walk since it was a gorgeous day, again. We were all delighted to watch the Maryland women win at home against Louisville (they'll play in Raleigh in the round of 16), then we watched Smash, which is starting to remind me in alarming ways of Glee; the acting's better and I enjoy the musical numbers, but Bernadette Peters coming on and singing a gratuitous song is totally something Glee would do as well as the whole "should I try to be famous or a team player?" storyline and I won't get started on adults thinking solely with their hormones. Here are some more photos from the Tidal Basin yesterday, where the cherry blossoms are supposedly at peak for Ostara: