Hedging a bet

What to do on a Minnesota March day: dreary, dank, depressing? Remember that Easter comes early this year; that the March solstice is little more than a week away; that evenings will now be longer as we search for the multitude of timepieces that need to "Spring ahead." Consider whether another Liam Clancy CD is needed to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a week.

hedgehogs as sentries

Photo by J. Harrington

the sentry up close

Photo by J. Harrington

Minnesota's dismal March days are also a great time to wonder why Minnesota's only hedgehogs are inanimate and chocolate. Appreciate that two of those hedgehogs are now standing sentry on a nest full of Easter eggs, playing roles similar to the lions guarding the portals of libraries. Ponder about why it is that Britain still has real hedgehogs while they became extinct in North America. Perhaps it's due to the fact that on this continent, we have an insufficient supply of smeuse.

                     Hedgehog

By Paul Muldoon

The snail moves like a

Hovercraft, held up by a

Rubber cushion of itself,

Sharing its secret

With the hedgehog. The hedgehog

Shares its secret with no one.

We say, Hedgehog, come out

Of yourself and we will love you.

We mean no harm. We want

Only to listen to what

You have to say. We want

Your answers to our questions.

The hedgehog gives nothing

Away, keeping itself to itself.

We wonder what a hedgehog

Has to hide, why it so distrusts.

We forget the god

Under this crown of thorns.

We forget that never again

Will a god trust in the world.

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Juxtaposition

©harrington

Growing up in New England, I saw a lot of stone walls and brick paved streets, rarely together. Stone walls were usually in rural locations, surrounding and delineating farm fields, houses and yards. They also served  poets such as Robert Frost as bridges to good neighborliness. Brick paving was most often found in somewhat less traveled roads in areas like Beacon Hill and under the asphalt overlay of more heavily thoroughfares. Finding something like the stone walls and brick paving juxtaposed the way they are in the photo above is one of the treats discoverable by exploring the byways of My Minnesota. That's how I discovered several of Minnesota's more notable writers and poets  who specialize in describing the juxtaposition of natural and man-made beauty found in rural places.