The first thing that is making me happy is the date! I love that it’s the 1st of May tomorrow – all 1sts are great! – and I love that I have one more opportunity to plug Poetry Month!
Poetry makes me happy! Here’s a flowchart (courtesy of Book Riot) to help you choose one poem to read before May dawns a new month to celebrate. I chose two poems from the list and copied them below:

DEEPER

Dennis Lee
From: unpublished, 1999.

Often at night, sometimes

out in the snow or going into the music, the hunch says,
“Deeper.”
I don’t know what it means.
Just, “Push it. Go further. Go deeper.”
And when they come talking at me I get
antsy at times, but mostly I stay put and it keeps saying,
“Deeper. This is not it. You must go deeper.”
There is danger in this, also
beautiful fingers and I believe it can issue in
gestures of concord; but I
cannot control it, all I know is one thing—
“Deeper. You must go further. You must go deeper.”
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/lee/poem3.htm

I had a little nut-tree,

I had a little nut-tree,
Nothing would it bear.
I searched in all its branches,
But not a nut was there.

‘Oh, little tree,’ I begged,
‘Give me just a few.’
The little tree looked down at me
And whispered, ‘Nuts to you.’

Roald Dahl

I finished reading “The Accidental Tourist” by Ann Tyler. I listened to about 2/3 of it and then after I finished my other book I picked it up and read to the end. It is a great book! The audio was painfully slow – I would count to 7 between sentences sometimes. Just try listening to someone talk that way! So I was glad to pick up the book and review it and power through to the end. I look forward to seeing the movie and getting together with book club to discuss! I think I may be a little bit of an Accidental Tourist… and can’t decide if it’s a good thing!
I had the bonus weekend off last week and enjoyed the beautiful weather (baseball game! walks! playgrounds!) but still made it to two Rochester International Film Group Festival movies!
Saturday I saw “Caesar Must Die” (Italy), which is about inmates at a high security prison who put on a public performance of “Julius Caesar.” Random thoughts: Even Italian prisoners at high security prison have fashion sense; it was powerful seeing prisoners memorizing Shakespeare in their solitary cells; it was even more powerful seeing the prisoners return to their solitary cells after their beautiful performance. Good stuff.
Sunday I saw “A Royal Affair” (Denmark), in which a young queen, marries an insane king, falls secretly in love with her physician – and together they start a revolution that changes a nation forever. Random thoughts: Beautiful people, those Danes; gloomy weather, that Denmark; beautiful dresses and corrupt government; sad story with hopeful ending, foreshadowed during a conversation about the purpose of working for change today when you may not live to see it, but realizing that we hope for a better world for the future. I cried.
Tomorrow is May Day, a fun memory from childhood! Doubt I’ll see any May Baskets on my door tomorrow, but if I do I’ll be home to chase the givers! Day off! Woot! Gonna spend it cleaning madly and then get a haircut! Maybe other fun stuff will be thrown in there, but although the weather may still threaten winter, I’m going to clean like it’s spring!
And tomorrow “Silver Linings Playbook” on DVD and ‘Helen the Second Wife” by Lian Dolan should arrive from amazon.com! Yay! Woot!

So that’s it for tonight … so much to be happy about.

How about you?

What’s making you happy??

What poem will you be reading in the wee hours before May brings new celebrations?