{"id":610,"date":"2017-04-18T10:50:42","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T17:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/?p=610"},"modified":"2017-04-18T10:50:42","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T17:50:42","slug":"april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/2017\/04\/18\/april\/","title":{"rendered":"April"},"content":{"rendered":"

I listened to the Airborne Toxic Event album. It’s called Tales of God and Whiskey<\/em>. It’s not bad! One title caught my eye. It was April is the Cruelest Month<\/em>. Being April, I played it first.<\/p>\n

I’m really bad about getting lyrics out of listening to a song. It’s usually dozens, if not more, listenings before I pay more than cursory attention to the lyrics. Sorry, lyricists!<\/p>\n

But ‘April is the cruelest month’ is a quote from somewhere. I thought it was Eliot and I was right. Here’s an excerpt, posted on\u00a0goodreads.com,<\/a> from The Waste Land:<\/p>\n

April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right below the Eliot quote are two poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The second hit me right between the eyes:<\/p>\n

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
\nBeauty is not enough.
\nYou can no longer quiet me with the redness
\nOf little leaves opening stickily.
\nI know what I know.
\nThe sun is hot on my neck as I observe
\nThe spikes of the crocus.
\nThe smell of the earth is good.
\nIt is apparent that there is no death.
\nBut what does that signify?
\nNot only under ground are the brains of men
\nEaten by maggots.
\nLife in itself
\nIs nothing,
\nAn empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
\nIt is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
\nApril
\nComes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I listened to the Airborne Toxic Event album. It’s called Tales of God and Whiskey. It’s not bad! One title caught my eye. It was April is the Cruelest Month. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[284,283,282],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-as-we-know-it","tag-edna-st-vincent-millay","tag-t-s-eliot","tag-the-airborne-toxic-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thezachproject.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}