Sunday, April 15, 2012

Spring wild


We are having wild growth and color, every day anew.  You too?

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Easter, faith

M sent me this poem by Edward Hirsch, who often writes with faith as a theme. I suppose faith is also a part of the life of poets; can you write poetry without faith?  M gets a "poem-a-day" each day of April (which is poetry month in the U.S.), and this poem appeared yesterday.  You can go to the poem-a-day site here:  poem-a-day    (you need to sign-up in the small box at the right of the link's page).


Green Figs 
I want to live like that little fig tree
    that sprouted up at the beach last spring
        and spread its leaves over the sandy rock.
All summer its stubborn green fruit
    (tiny flowers covered with a soft skin)
        ripened and grew in the bright salt spray.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good
    and Evil was a fig tree, or so it is said,
        but this wild figure was a wanton stray.
I need to live like that crooked tree—
    solitary, bittersweet, and utterly free—
        that knelt down in the hardest winds
but could not be blasted away.
    It kept its eye on the far horizon
        and brought honey out of the rock.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Spring, Easter 2012

crabapple tree at the church yard

I think of Easter, the day when loss becomes new life, as the start of spring.  Here is a poem by E.E. Cummings, spring!may--.  The poem reads a lot like a song, don't you think?

spring!may--
everywhere's here
(with a low high low
and the bird on the bough)
how?why
--we never we know
(so kiss me)shy sweet eagerly my
most dear


(die!live)
the new is the true
and to lose is to have
--we never we know--
brave!brave
(the earth and the sky
are one today)my very so gay
young love


why?how--
we never we know
(with a high low high
in the may in the spring)
live!die
(forever is now)
and dance you suddenly blossoming tree
--i'll sing