Spring Forward, Fall Back
by Troy Jollimore
In November, the hours are slower;
winding down weather, the fresh lather
of a first snow. The winter,
with its months of hospital afternoons waits huddled just over the border.
And ice will make all the distances
that much further. Speak now, kiss now
before the river freezes altogether.Wow, powerful poem! Thanks for that. It really strikes a chord with me as someone who has spent many cold afternoons in hospitals thinking about the coming winter and end of the year. Speak now, kiss now. Wow! By the way, here in Norway, as in most of Europe, we will change our clocks on 30 March. I really don't much care for DST, changing the rhythm of the days feels terribly unnatural.
Here in eastern North America, it will get dark at 7:15 p.m... a longer day to bang around in with sunrise around 7:45 a.m.: almost 12 hours of daylight whoowhee!! It does feel unnatural to impose an arbitrary human time on rising and setting of the sun. I became suspicious of calendars altogether back when I was in high school. The first time I stayed up all night, I realized that it was all one day... all the same day...that Monday flowed rather seamlessly into Tuesday, that time divisions were imposed for convenience but were otherwise mythical. I'm not explaining this well here and now, but it was a profound realization at the time, more profound than the ohmygosh awareness that the walls go all the way up to the ceiling. At least to me. Then. Speak now. Kiss now.