Reruns: March Posts Worth Revisiting

Over the years in March I've written quite a lot about biking and occasionally about a different topic or two. The month may come in like a lion, yet I've been able to ride year round no matter where I've lived, from snowy Spokane to soggy Seattle and now grey-ish and mild Olympia.

• “Safe passage through countless intersections”: A Baker’s Dozen of Transportation Poems (Bike Style, March 21, 2023)
• Introducing Zelda the E-Bike (Bike Style, Mar. 25, 2019)
• A Multimodal Multi-Bike Day: How Bikeshare Comes in Handy for a Bike Owner (Bike Style, Mar. 23, 2019)
• Model Modal Manners: Move Like You’re in a Grocery Store (Bike Style, Mar. 2, 2019)
• Errands by Bike Are a Breeze (and Sometimes Breezy): Errandonnee 2018 (Bike Style Life, Mar. 31, 2018)
• Keeping Another Streak Going: #30DaysOfYoga (Mar. 20, 2018)
• Keep that Streak Going: #30DaysOf Something that Matters to You (Mar. 18, 2018)
• I Came to a Fork in the Road (Bike Style Life, March 12, 2017)
• By the Numbers: A Morning Bike Commute (Washington Bikes March 13, 2014)
• A Pause to Remember (March 26, 2013)
• Not Even Fully Loaded: Another Grocery Run (Bike Style March 17, 2013)
• The Skirt Scoot: A Key Maneuver (on Bike Style Spokane March 24, 2012)
• The Mindful Biking Series (Mar. 17, 2012)
• 5 Behavior and Culture Hacks to Get More People to Bike and Walk (Bike Style March 11, 2013)
• Why a Cyclist Needs a Pedometer (on Bike Style Spokane  Mar. 14, 2012)
• Set Down that Heavy Load: The Things We Carry (March 29, 2011)
• Those Nice Lady Drivers (March 26, 2011)
• Set Down that Heavy Load: The Things We Carry (March 29, 2011)
• Losing Weight (March 21, 2011), not at all a contribution to diet culture or fatphobia, not about body size at all
• Good Advice: Take It a Little Easier on Yourself, Sicko (March 15, 2011)
• Seeing with New Eyes (March 13, 2011)
• Evolution, not Revolution: All Biking Motives Welcome, Part II (March 3, 2011)
• Evolution, not Revolution: All Biking Motives Welcome, Part I (March 1, 2011)
• Sweeping Generalizations Are Always False, Mr. Professional Traffic Engineer (March 31, 2010)
• Not Exactly a Recipe for Potato Soup: My Vegetarian Trickery (March 29, 2010)
• Finding a new wormhole: Climbing hard or climbing easy (Cycling Spokane, March 21, 2010) 
• I’m all for conversation but maybe you could just shut up for a while (Cycling Spokane, March 20, 2010) 
• Hassle Factor: Bike Days vs. Car Days (March 20, 2010)
• To Race, or Not to Race. That Is the Question. Whether 'tis Nobler in the Mind to Suffer the Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune.... (March 6, 2010)
• What IS It with the Body Spray, Already? Smells Like a Lot More than Teen Spirit (March 28, 2009)
• Ways the World Wide Web Allows Me to Procrastinate. Food for Thought, but You Should Do Something Productive Instead of Reading This (March 17, 2009)

A Year of Poems: March

March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb, right? Or is that April? Depends on where you live and what climate change is doing to move your local weather patterns. Although Shakespeare made the ides of March famous in "Julius Caesar" every month has its ides; per Merriam-Webster the ides was the 15th of March, May, July, or October (the four original 31-day months) or the 13th day of any other month in the ancient Roman calendar

March is also the month in which you may celebrate World Poetry Day on March 21, established by UNESCO in 1999.

Many of the poems I found were from the 19th century. I prefer contemporary poetry so I'm not including the ones with the galloping beat and the occasional forced rhyme. 

This first poem is about a very particular March, one unlike any other before it in my lifetime and one I hope not to find echoed in a future month.

"Things That Are Changed—March 2020" by Kimiko Hahn

Empty jar: I think to grow beansprouts and look into ordering seeds. Back ordered until May 1.

"March 1st" by Larry Schug

A radio weather caster warns his listeners
that tonight will be winter’s coldest,
though spring lurks like a shy suitor,
paralyzed with uncertainty,
shivering on the steps
outside his loved one’s door.

"Dear March—Come in—(1320)" by Emily Dickinson

I got your Letter, and the Birds—
The Maples never knew that you were coming—
I declare - how Red their Faces grew—

"We Like March" by Emily Dickinson

We like March, his shoes are purple.
He is new and high;
Makes he mud for Dog and Peddler,
Makes he forests dry.

"Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself" by Wallace Stevens

The sun was rising at six,
No longer a battered panache above snow . . .

"March Thought" by Hilda Conkling 
(this is the entire poem)

I am waiting for the flowers
To come back:
I am alone,
But I can wait for the birds.

"Mid-March" by Mary Ricketson

Surprise is the rule when spring makes promises
and promises are made to break.

"Snowbound, March" by Alice N. Persons

Tomorrow will bring the hard labor of plows,
of shoveling walks, snowblowing a path for the oil man,
the too-familiar weariness
of all that Sisyphean work

but for these few hours there is a kind of peace
in the mostly silent streets,

"March" by Linda Lee Konichek

A few bewildered blades of new grass
Poke through this wet cover, unsure
Of such a cold white-rain world. 

…still there is a softness in the morning air...

"Sprung" by Yash Seyedbagheri

now rich mud of March
pokes through
streams meandering with cheerful indolence
no need to slink straight through snow 

and charcoal nights are replaced
by the lush lavender
evening chill—but not coldness

"Revival" by Luci Shaw

March. I am beginning
to anticipate a thaw. Early mornings
the earth, old unbeliever, is still crusted with frost

"Late March" by Richard Schiffman

Again the trees remembered
to make leaves.
In the forest of their recollection
many birds returned
singing.

A Year of Poems

• A Year of Poems: January
• A Year of Poems: February