{"id":5230,"date":"2014-04-05T14:34:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T18:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=5230"},"modified":"2014-04-05T14:36:05","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T18:36:05","slug":"spring-is-coming-if-we-just-hold-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2014\/04\/05\/spring-is-coming-if-we-just-hold-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring is Coming, if we just hold on"},"content":{"rendered":"

As hundreds of unshaven middle aged folks swarm the campus, we can take a break from the puffs of smoke and baja’s to admire the change in weather. Although anyone living in Michigan for more than year knows that it’s too early to ditch the winter jackets, it’s certainly getting close to Spring. As I’m not quite as eager as the daring young boys who wear shorts solely because it was above 50\u00c2\u00a0yesterday<\/em>, I choose to tie myself over in the wait with poetry. For all you midwesterners out there, here’s a poem by Bob Hicok in the anticipation of daffodils.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A Primer<\/p>\n

by Bob Hicok<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I remember Michigan fondly as the place I go<\/p>\n

to be in Michigan. The right hand of America<\/p>\n

waving from maps or the left<\/p>\n

pressing into clay a mold to take home<\/p>\n

from kindergarten to Mother. I lived in Michigan<\/p>\n

forty-three years. The state bird<\/p>\n

is a chained factory gate. The state flower<\/p>\n

is Lake Superior, which sounds egotistical<\/p>\n

though it is merely cold and deep as truth.<\/p>\n

A Midwesterner can use the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153truth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

can sincerely use the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sincere.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

In truth the Midwest is not mid or west.<\/p>\n

When I go back to Michigan I drive through Ohio.<\/p>\n

There is off I-75 in Ohio a mosque, so life<\/p>\n

goes corn corn corn mosque, I wave at Islam,<\/p>\n

which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not getting along with<\/p>\n

on account of the Towers as I pass.<\/p>\n

Then Ohio goes corn corn corn<\/p>\n

billboard, goodbye, Islam. You never forget<\/p>\n

how to be from Michigan when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re from Michigan.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like riding a bike of ice and fly fishing.<\/p>\n

The Upper Peninsula is a spare state<\/p>\n

in case Michigan goes flat. I live now<\/p>\n

in Virginia, which has no backup plan<\/p>\n

but is named the same as my mother,<\/p>\n

I live in my mother again, which is creepy<\/p>\n

but so is what the skin under my chin is doing,<\/p>\n

suddenly there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pouch like marsupials<\/p>\n

are needed. The state joy is spring.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Osiris, we beseech thee, rise and give us baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

is how we might sound were we Egyptian in April,<\/p>\n

when February hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ended. February<\/p>\n

is thirteen months long in Michigan.<\/p>\n

We are a people who by February<\/p>\n

want to kill the sky for being so gray<\/p>\n

and angry at us. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What did we do?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

is the state motto. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a day in May<\/p>\n

when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all tumblers, gymnastics<\/p>\n

is everywhere, and daffodils are asked<\/p>\n

by young men to be their wives. When a man elopes<\/p>\n

with a daffodil, you know where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s from.<\/p>\n

In this way I have given you a primer.<\/p>\n

Let us all be from somewhere.<\/p>\n

Let us tell each other everything we can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As hundreds of unshaven middle aged folks swarm the campus, we can take a break from the puffs of smoke and baja’s to admire the change in weather. Although anyone living in Michigan for more than year knows that it’s too early to ditch the winter jackets, it’s certainly getting close to Spring. As I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5230"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5232,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5230\/revisions\/5232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}