(born 1937).
American poet born and raised in Massachusetts.
She has published seven books of poetry, and They Can’t Take That Away From Me (2001) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry.
Gail Mazur (1960) Photo wikipedia.org
Late February and the air’s so balmy, snowdrops and crocuses might be fooled into early blooming. Then the inevitable blizzard will come, blighting our harbingers of spring, and the numbed yards will go back undercover. In Florida, it’s strawberry season, shortcake, waffles, berries, and cream will be penciled on the coffeeshop menus.
Meaning 🌱❄️🍓: The interpretation is substantively spot on; the fragment works mainly through “contrast” and “temporariness”: Early flowering as “deception” 🌼 Snowdrops and crocuses are “fooled” by a soft air: an image for “early optimism” (nature “thinks” it is already spring). The inevitable backlash 🌨️ . The late snowstorm represents the pattern that hope can be “too early”: winter returns and “erases” the harbinger. “Undercover yards / numbed yards” 🧊. The landscape withdraws again under a blanket (snow/cold): life goes into “shelter” again. Florida as a counter-world🍓. Florida’s strawberry season (shortcakes, waffles, cream) is: “reliable,” “bodily,” “abundant,” an almost sensuous “menu spring”compared to the fickle north. This also gives the passage an undercurrent of “longing” and “geographical jealousy”: elsewhere it has truly begun. 🧭 Origin: This is typical of literary seasonal passages in that it: makes “micro-observation → macro-meaning” (flowers/weather → hope/disappointment), sets up “time (late February)” as a “liminal zone”: no longer winter, not yet spring—uses a “two-location structure” (here vs. Florida) to sharply contrast: uncertainty vs. certainty; scarcity vs. abundance. Author & citation 📚✍️ ✅ :Gail Mazur. Source: “The Common” (1995), University of Chicago Press. Genre/place in the oeuvre: This reads as “poetic prose / prose poem” (or a strong narrative, descriptive poem) within a poetry collection—Mazur often uses “sensory observation” and “seasonal transitions” to convey emotional “tipping points.”
Door Pieter
Mensenmens, zoon, echtgenoot, vader, opa.
Spiritueel, echter niet religieus.
Ik hou van golf, wandelen, lezen en de natuur in veel opzichten.
Onderzoeker, nieuwsgierig, geen fan van de mainstream media (MSM).
