April

A Blessing

Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,
Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with kindness.
They have come gladly out of the willows
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, alone.
They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness
That we have come.
They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.
There is no loneliness like theirs.
At home once more, they begin munching the young tufts of spring in the darkness.
I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,
For she has walked over to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black and white,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear
That is delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body I would break
Into blossom.

James Wright

April Birthdays

April 3 Otto Weininger (Austrian, born 1880)
April 5 Thomas Hobbes (British, born 1588)
April 7 Charles Fourier (French, born 1772) and Thomas Hill Green (British, born 1836)
April 8 Edmund Husserl (German, born 1859)
April 10 Hugo Grotius (Dutch, born 1583)
April 12 Clarence Irving Lewis (American, born 1883)
April 14 Moritz Schlick (German, born 1882)
April 21 Max Weber (German, born 1864)
April 22 Immanuel Kant (German, born 1724)
April 26 Marcus Aurelius (Roman, born 121), Thomas Reid (Scottish, born 1710), and Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austrian, born 1889)
April 27 Mary Wollstonecraft (British, born 1759) and Herbert Spencer (British, born 1820)
April 28 Kurt Godel (Austrian-American, born 1906)
April 29 Henri Poincare (French, born 1854)