It’s the 30th anniversary of National Poetry Month, begun in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. I’m celebrating it in my own fashion, reading favorite poems about April. T.S. Eliot dubbed it “the cruellest month.” Edna St. Vincent Millay was equally suspicious: “It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, / April / Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.” An idiot! When I read those lines, spring fever beginning to throb in my veins, I feel like Millay is mocking me for being so awed, again, by the magnolia blossoms flinging open their floppy petals for a brief window of delirium.
To Ogden Nash, April was “Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy.” There’s the cruelty again, but he ends having come to appreciate the month’s contradictions: “I love April, I love you.” Langston Hughes’s “April Rain Song” concludes similarly: “The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night / And I love the rain.”
April has, in the Northeast, been inconstant as always. A perfect spring bike ride there; a windy, rainy hustle back. The poems tend to capture this fickle quality. As Robert Frost put it: “The sun was warm but the wind was chill. / You know how it is with an April day.”
We do. April days contain multiple seasons. There’s a lesson in there, if we want to take it, about holding multiple things at once. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, the challenge of containing conflicting emotions, conflicting ideas, the alternately sunny and stormy fronts of the internal weather system. I’ve been writing this new newsletter, The Good List (you should sign up!), and while it’s meant to catalog things that bring joy, it’s not meant to deny that there are difficult things in the world, or to avoid the inevitable contradictions that come from loving things: beautiful films about sad subjects, art that emerges from suffering. Things aren’t only good (or only bad). I often return to these lines from David Ferry’s translation of Horace: “It’s true that Jupiter brings on the hard winters; / It’s also true that Jupiter takes them away.”
Certainty is easier. April, in much of the country, is liminal, vacillating between winter and spring, refusing to resolve cleanly. If you look closely, you can observe this tension: the tulips quivering in the gusting wind; people in shorts and people wearing mittens on the same block; stepping onto the porch to see a robin and instead seeing your own breath. The internal work is much the same. Sitting quietly, paying close attention to the weather inside, you can observe the hope that blows in with the fear, the lightness and heaviness that seem to be competing. The psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach advises greeting each experience that arises within us with the phrase “this too,” accepting what’s there, even if it’s uncomfortable.
So: How are you celebrating National Poetry Month? You might listen to “The Poetry Magazine Podcast,” or, if you’re less inclined to embrace it, read the writer Ben Lerner on “The Hatred of Poetry.” Or better yet, embrace April’s spirit of contradictions and do both. While I was writing this, a friend sent me a poem by Jane Hirshfield that reminded me of poetry’s enduring potency: “Stone did not become apple. War did not become peace. / Yet joy still stays joy. Sequins stay sequins. Words still bespangle, bewilder.”
THE LATEST NEWS
War with Iran
Peace talks are set to begin today in Pakistan. Vice President JD Vance is leading the American delegation, which includes Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
World leaders, trying to keep the negotiations on track, have called on Israel to halt its attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The scale of the fighting in Lebanon is staggering, with more than a million people forced from their homes. See what’s happening, in photos and video.
The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is central to the talks. But Iran has been slow to do so, in part because it can’t locate all of the mines it laid in the waterway, U.S. officials say.
The Times has uncovered additional evidence that U.S.-made missiles struck a sports hall and school on the war’s first day. The strikes killed 21 people, including five children.
Economy
Prices in the U.S. rose 0.9 percent over the course of March, the highest monthly gain since the peak of the post-pandemic inflation crisis in 2022.
Gas is getting expensive, and it’s driving prices up in seemingly far-off places like grocery stores and airports. It could strain consumer spending, which has been keeping a recession at bay.
Still, the S&P 500 ended the week up 3.6 percent — its strongest showing since November.
Politics
Other Big Stories
CULTURE CALENDAR
📺 Margo’s Got Money Troubles (Wednesday): Rufi Thorpe’s delectable novel about on-camera sex work, family both found and biological, and one young woman’s messy, vibrant networks of mutual care has become a delightful Apple TV series, adapted by David E. Kelley. Elle Fanning stars as Margo, a Southern California college student who becomes pregnant and takes an unusual approach to making ends meet. (Let’s just say it involves viral dances and a lot of body paint.) Unstinting in its comedy and its humanity, the show is especially insightful about the ways that people fail and redeem each other. The dynamite cast includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Nick Offerman and Greg Kinnear.
The Hunt: A couple leaving the Midwest for new opportunities in Albuquerque, N.M., looked for a home that could accommodate a dog, three cats, 30 plants and 75 pounds of rocks. What did they find? Play our game.
What you get for $650,000 in Portugal: A duplex in Almada. A modern apartment in Lisbon. A rowhouse in Porto.
A new coat: Paint is perhaps the easiest way to change the look of a room. To find the best kind for your project, look at the SPAM: solvents, pigments, additives and materials.
Work in progress: A landscape designer has been adding color, personality and whimsical surprise to his Seattle home for more than 15 years, and he has no plans to stop.
Achoo! Allergies can be miserable. Why does your immune system treat pollen like a parasite?
Everyday influencers: The latest trend in food criticism is casual, personal reviews that seem like a conversation with a friend.
ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER
3 tips for allergy season
We can’t control the budding trees and blooming flowers that set off our seasonal allergies. But we can take steps to freshen the air indoors. First, an air purifier is a simple and effective way to capture common airborne allergens, including pollen. (If you already own one, make sure to clean the prefilter monthly.) A quality bagged vacuum can also make a big difference, because it sucks dust and debris into a sealed bag that won’t blow back into your face. Finally, for dust that lingers on flat surfaces, ditch the feather duster. A damp rag or microfiber cloth will do a better job of keeping allergens from becoming airborne. — Brittney Ho
GAME OF THE WEEK
The Masters. Live sports are sensory experiences, and it’s hard not to feel some jealousy when watching the Masters on a screen — how nice it must be to feel the warmth of the Georgia sun, to taste the pimento cheese sandwich that still costs just $1.50.
But perhaps no sporting event translates senses through the television as well as the Masters does. This weekend, if you’ve got it on, crank the volume, close your eyes and let yourself be whisked away: the birdsong and the whispered commentary and the soft thwack of a seven iron, all deliciously clear over the strictly enforced silence of the gallery. Or, if golf A.S.M.R. isn’t your thing, open your eyes and get lost in the sea of green fairways, so verdant it’s hard to believe they’re real.
The latest: Rory McIlroy, last year’s champion, holds a six-shot lead over the field. Even the usual final-round drama might not be enough to stop him.
