Marcie Ratliff/Winonan

Because April is both poetry month and sustainability month, I question T. S. Eliot’s assertion that it is the cruelest month.

Of course, Winona of late has been most inhospitable to my favorite spring activities, which include wearing shorts, rollerblading, running, reading on a blanket by the lake, biking, hiking and procrastinating.

It’s true, there’s no better motivation to write a paper than a wet, cold, windy April day.

But I digress. April, being poetry month and sustainability month, seems to merit commendation apart from its weather and the amount of schoolwork it seems to engender.

In the past two weeks, I have gone to three poetry readings, hearing good poems by Ed Bok Lee, James Armstrong, and students in Armstrong’s poetry class.

Of course, I’ve read and written my fair share as well.

Why is April so particularly inspiring to poetry? Without writing a poem about it, I couldn’t tell you exactly, but it has something to do with the contest between dark and light, cold and warmth, wind and sun, rain and drought.

It has something to do with how the grass, after a winter of being excoriated by salt and boots, pokes out of the soft ground with a stubborn green tenacity.

It has something to do with how the sun gathers its rays together and shines with a dimension the winter sun, angled so steeply, lacks.

April begets change, from the fluffy buds on the flowering trees to the long green whips of the willow trees.

April soaks those same trees in cold rain and ice a day later.

And so, April forever uncategorizable, riding the line between heaven and hell, is a month for poetry.

Write a poem about that.

On to sustainability. Winona is a community particularly dedicated to sustainability, and rightfully so.

Winona has a lot to offer a college student, but ask any of us why we showed up here and stayed here and you’ll probably hear something related to the bluffs and the river and eagles and islands and turtles and sunsets and hikes.

That’s the case for me, anyway. Of course, academics and friends were a factor, but the risk was low: cool places attract cool people.

Naturally, keeping this abundant beauty around for the future is high on the priority list, and students across campus are embracing projects like Spruce Up Winona, Bike Week, and the Greenhouse Project.

Even as the homework load increases, the joy of being outside increases all the more, promising rejuvenation to the library-worn and book-tired.

As poet Mary Oliver writes, “What countries, what visitations, what pomp would satisfy me as thoroughly as Blackwater Woods on a sun-filled morning, or, equally, in the rain?”

So, I don’t mind April. Drying in the sun, it looks better every day.

Trees and bushes gain their youth again, although I get older.

Bike Week reminds me it’s time to get the bike out of the garage.

Arbor Day and Spruce Up Winona offer opportunities to contribute to Winona’s vibrant beauty.

Poetry seems an apt response.

Contact Marcie at [email protected]