Thursday, March 25th

FOR THE FIRST TIME in a year or more I set out for a lecture in lovely warm sunny weather and had good weather the whole three days … I really can hardly believe it. In New York forsythia is out and the magnolias in front of the public library are just on the brink.

I talked and read poems on the theme of “An Experience of Solitude” at the College of Mount St. Vincent in Riverdale.

I was away only for two nights, but it seemed ages. I was very glad to get home yesterday afternoon to warm wind, spring air, a rough blue sea … and a few tiny early crocuses as well as snowdrops to welcome me.

It is time I caught on to the fact that people who say, “I make no demands” are the ones, of course, who, whether they know it or not, are out for the blood in one’s body, are out to catch the soul, and to dominate a life. The least they demand (but that is everything) is one’s attention.