isn't it spring vacation yet?

something new, something old

when should the new year begin?

our calendar figures that if we wait about a week
after the shortest day of the year,
maybe enough time passes for us to get
that the Sun has started back from its retreat south,

we call it a new year
even though there’s a 3 month lag
before the world is ready to spring forth in growth,
for that time winter pauses & holds
until water quits phase changing solid,
we huddle together
hoping for hope,
the calendar flips
and flips again,
and the March is on,

as spring approaches
bud and red bud notice and wake up,

we teachers & students, though, are not at a beginning,
our year is 2/3 over,
and our energies are more forced in their bloom than natural,
there is a double dog tiredness about,
and it’s getting hard to finish a thought, a project,
hard to open to the other, the new,

it may be a good time for a new year,
yet deep within me I’m more ready to take a break, a nap,

isn’t it spring vacation yet?

by Henry H. Walker
March 17, ’09