Welcome to May and, by traditional reckoning of time, to summer. Welcome to the gentle time of year. I’ve approached May with a paperback copy of the poetry of Robert Herrick in my hands for the past few days, reading while I walk down sidewalks and up and down stairs. It’s dangerous, I know, but no more dangerous than walking while texting, and I feel so much better walking and reading Robert Herrick than I feel walking and texting. I was looking for a certain poem, the one that Herrick wrote for May Day (“Corinna’s Going a Maying”) and in my search stumbled upon so many that pleased me. Like this one:
Breathe, Julia, breathe, and Ile protest,
Nay more, Ile deeply sweare,
That all the Spices of the East
Are circumfused there.
That’s it, just four lines. It’s called “On Julia’s breath.” The book is filled with gems like that. And then there is the book itself: small, thin, flexible. It fits nicely in my hands and is not cumbersome nor at all obtrusive. A simple companion on my walks and what more could you ask for in a book or a walking companion? I am a bit in love with the book and the poems it contains. But this is what May does to us, when it is at its most powerful. May calls us to the things of this world. Valentine’s Day may corner the market on romance commercially, but May Day, if you ask me, is where the passion is at. The rivers are a’running, the bees are a’buzzing, the loving cup overflowing.
May was, in my years in graduate school, the time of year I would leave Alabama and head to Maine. There was romance in Maine and there was work to be done, too: internships with letterpress printers. Some were in Portland but most were with the Shaker Press in New Gloucester, at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community, where I would work with Brother Arnold Hadd. May would come and suddenly my life was immersed in Shaker music, Shaker spirituality, Shaker herbs (“all the spices of the East, circumfused there”)… all things Shaker. Shaker gift drawings fascinated me the most: Images delivered to Shaker brothers and sisters from the spirit world, which they then transferred to paper using inks and paints. One of those Shaker gift drawings, a drawing of an angel, is the cover star of this month’s Convivio Book of Days calendar. It’s our monthly gift to you, a printable PDF, and a fine companion to this Book of Days blog.
But these are the things of my world right now: poetry, spices, angels. If you see me out there, say hello. I’m the guy who could’ve used a haircut at least a week or two ago by now, the one with his nose in a paperback book, falling in love a bit with the little things. Happy May.
HAPPY MAY DAY TO YOU TOO MY DEAREST JOHN!
THANK YOU THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Happy May Day, Ester!
Always nice to remember what’s special about each month of the year. Thanks, John!
Thanks Chris!
Have you ever read 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff or seen the movie on which it is based? The book is based on a decades long correspondence between Ms. Hanff of NYC and an English bookseller. There is a scene in the movie where she requests a leather bound, pocket sized book of poetry suitable for spring when romance is in the air. Many months later it arrived during spring and she takes herself off to Central Park to laze in the sun and read the poetry. Your description of you book of Herrick’s poetry immediately called this memory to me. You, too, have a lovely way with words. May your May Day be a blessed one.
Thank you, Stacey. We watched the film once, I think it was an off-day in one of my bookbinding classes where we were in the middle of a pretty intense leather binding and maybe we all just looked like we needed a break. So the professor gave us 84 Charing Cross Road. Good timing.