7 Profound Meanings Behind "It's Been January For Months In Both Directions"

The viral poetic line "it's been January for months in both directions" has become a cultural shorthand for the feeling of perpetual stagnation and emotional exhaustion in the modern era. Originally penned by the celebrated Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar, this single, striking sentence is the opening of his poem "Wild Pear Tree," published in his critically acclaimed 2017 collection, *Calling a Wolf a Wolf*. In late December 2025, the phrase is experiencing a renewed surge in popularity across social media and literary discussions, resonating deeply with a world grappling with long-term, unresolved global and personal crises. This seemingly simple statement—a powerful blend of meteorological observation and psychological despair—encapsulates the core themes of Akbar’s work: the relentless, cold, and isolating battle of addiction and the search for spiritual meaning in a world that often feels barren. To truly understand its impact, one must look beyond the surface-level metaphor of a long winter and delve into the poet’s personal journey of sobriety and the literary context of his seminal work.

The Poet Behind the Perpetual Winter: Kaveh Akbar's Biography

The profound resonance of the phrase is inseparable from the life and work of its creator, Kaveh Akbar. His writing is characterized by raw intimacy, spiritual searching, and a fearless confrontation with the self, which has established him as a major voice in contemporary American poetry.

• Full Name: Kaveh Akbar (کاوه اکبر)
• Born: January 15, 1989
• Origin: Born in Tehran, Iran, and raised in the United States.
• Education: Attended Purdue University, where he later taught.
• Major Poetry Collections: Calling a Wolf a Wolf (2017) and Pilgrim Bell (2021).
• Debut Novel: Martyr! (2024), which became a *New York Times* bestseller and a National Book Award finalist.
• Key Themes: Addiction, sobriety, recovery, cultural identity, spirituality, and the nature of the self.
• Other Works: He is the founder of the popular poetry interview website, Divedapper.
• Awards & Honors: Recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2019 Ploughshares's John C. Zacharis First Book Award.

Akbar’s work, particularly *Calling a Wolf a Wolf*, is an intensely autobiographical exploration of his journey through alcoholism and into sobriety. The collection uses deft, often startling language to recreate the isolation and hypnagogic reality that an addict experiences. This context is crucial, as "Wild Pear Tree" and its opening line are not merely about the weather, but about a soul trapped in a perpetual state of cold, barren desire.

Unpacking the Metaphor: What "January" Truly Represents

The line "it's been January for months in both directions" is a masterclass in figurative language, condensing a complex emotional state into a single, chilling image. It operates on multiple, interlocking levels of meaning, making it incredibly versatile and powerful for readers from all walks of life.

1. The Perpetual State of Addiction (The Core Meaning)

In the context of Kaveh Akbar's work, January is a powerful symbol of addiction and the cold, relentless turmoil it brings. January is the dead of winter—barren, cold, and devoid of growth or warmth. The phrase suggests that the speaker’s life has been stuck in this painful, isolating state for an agonizingly long time. The addiction has taken an unrelenting hold, leaving the speaker in a perpetual state of hunger and desire, unable to remember the warmth of spring or summer.

2. The Loss of Temporal Direction (The "Both Directions" Paradox)

The phrase’s genius lies in the modifier: "in both directions." January, as the first month of the year, usually points forward to the rest of the year and the eventual arrival of spring. When the speaker says it has been January "for months in both directions," it means:

• Looking Forward: The future is not spring or summer; it is more January. There is no hope for change or warmth.
• Looking Backward: The past is not the memory of a better time; it is also January. The speaker’s present coldness has retroactively frozen their memory of the past, creating a sense of existential emptiness and a continuous, unbroken stretch of suffering.

This paradox creates a feeling of being utterly trapped in time, where the past, present, and future are all merged into a single, bleak, and unending moment of stagnation.

3. The Feeling of Post-Traumatic Ennui

Outside the context of addiction, the line has been widely adopted to describe the collective feeling of post-traumatic ennui that has characterized recent years. The global pandemic, political turmoil, and constant stream of bad news (as noted in recent discussions) have made many people feel as if a difficult, cold period has stretched on indefinitely. The emotional turbulence of a prolonged crisis makes the concept of a normal, forward-moving life feel impossible, leading to a sense that the calendar has simply stopped.

The Poetic Entities and Literary Authority

Kaveh Akbar’s poetry is deeply rooted in literary tradition while forging its own path. The strength of "Wild Pear Tree" comes from its ability to weave together personal trauma with universal, philosophical concepts. The entities and themes within the collection provide the phrase with its immense topical authority.

4. A Dialogue with Literary Giants

Akbar’s work is often placed in conversation with other poets who tackled themes of addiction and spiritual hunger, such as Franz Wright and John Berryman. The collection itself opens with an epigraph from W.H. Auden—"All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation"—firmly yoking the spiritual struggle to the physical one. This literary lineage elevates the phrase from a simple observation to a profound statement on the human condition.

5. The Isolation of the Self

The surrounding lines of "Wild Pear Tree" further emphasize the theme of isolation. The poem describes the "frost over grass like pale fungus" and the "branches of the pear tree... pickling in ice," creating a surreal, detached landscape. This blurring of perception and the feeling of being distanced from danger or reality is a key element in the poems that detail the speaker’s alcoholism. The endless January is the mental landscape of a person isolated from society and even from their own instincts.

6. The Rejection of the Future

A crucial line later in the poem is where the speaker describes his days: "all the days / in a year line up at the door and I deflect each saying no / you will not be needed one by one they skulk off." This image directly connects back to the opening line. If it’s always January, then no other month—no other day—is needed. The speaker, trapped in the cold comfort of their current state (be it addiction, depression, or grief), actively rejects the possibility of a different future, reinforcing the perpetual nature of the "January" state.

7. The Hope for Rebirth and Recovery

Despite the bleakness, the collection *Calling a Wolf a Wolf* is ultimately a narrative of recovery and transformation. The poem's title, "Wild Pear Tree," is a natural entity that holds the promise of spring, growth, and fruitfulness. The fact that the poem exists is a testament to the poet’s survival. The "endless January" is the starting point, the realization of the depth of the problem. By naming the pain—by explicitly stating that "it’s been January for months"—the speaker begins the arduous process of acknowledging the past and moving toward a future where the calendar can finally turn to February, and eventually, to spring. The poem is the first breath of a new man pushing against the isolation to become better. The viral nature of Kaveh Akbar’s opening line is a clear indicator that the feeling of a cold, unending winter—a stagnation that stretches in both directions—is a universally understood experience. It has become a powerful, concise way to articulate the modern condition of emotional fatigue, making it one of the most resonant poetic lines of the last decade.