Tag Archives: spring

(Sub)urban Lawns: toddaid byr

The world is changed each day; each morning sun
undoes as it is born.
From yesterday it lets the seed we sow
grow into what it needs.
But what has come before is gone and past;
last summer’s fading lawn
becomes the mulch that feeds the fresh grass blades
that fade so soon from view.

07 JUL 2017

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I Cannot Speak: rondeau

I cannot speak of what I’ve seen:
the smell of bleach is on those scenes,
and faintly, on each memory’s breath,
a subtle scent of loss and death,
with hints of joy and hope between.

I hear the dripping fat, I dream
of crackles in the kerosene
that sizzle ’til there’s nothing left;
I cannot speak.

I stand aside, and watch, and lean
a while. I wait as the new green
begins to sprout amidst this death;
a garden is a grave, reset,
that in each’s season prayer and sweat
writes of the sacred and obscene
I cannot speak.

04 MAY 2017

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Come Up: englyn proest dalgron

Come up again from the earth;
break through the cold crust and breathe!
Stretch those limbs, no worse for wear;
awake from your winter death!

Rise up through the thawing soil,
and drink the melting snow moist;
with your rested throat come join
the rest of the newborn choir!

Shake loose the dirt, seek the sun!
The world is once again young.
It wants new music begun
and merry wine and song brought.

Come up again from the earth;
enough of this bitter death!
Take down sad winter’s stale wreaths;
hang daisies and baby’s breath.

13 MAR 2017

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Midwinter’s Tale: a carol (or carole)

Joyous tidings! Dance and sing!
Born, the sun, and with it, Spring!

Birth and rebirth, life’s delight:
in dark winter’s longest night
comes the spark of new year’s light.
Joyous tidings! Dance and sing!

Life’s bright flame shines through the cold,
now as in the days of old;
watch with joy as life unfolds.
Born, the sun, and with it, Spring!

Cast off hiberating ways
in these short and chill-filled days;
let us sing the warm sun’s praise!
Joyous tidings! Dance and sing!

From the hearth-fire grows the spark
to illuminate the dark;
a new calendar to mark.
Born, the sun, and with it, Spring!

As the old year finds its end,
time’s wheel comes around again;
enters stranger, leaves as friend.
Joyous tidings! Dance and sing!

Joyous tidings! Dance and sing!
Born, the sun, and with it, Spring!

28 NOV 2010

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Seasons After Spring

I’m just an outlaw over 40
with no airtime on the radio today
where each hot new hit’s a retrofit
of juvenile emotion and cliche;
but I’m laughing at the demographics
every time I get a chance to play
’cause for me real country music isn’t
about some gold records on display.

I’m just an outlaw over 40
far beyond my prime for video appeal
where the song need tell no story
if the actors on the screen can keep it real;
and to write about the fight against
such fantasy can break your record deal.
I won’t say that it’s not country, but
it’s whistle steam that never turns the wheel.

Music’s not just for the young,
not an excuse to sell CDs.
It’s about speaking from your heart;
at least, that’s how it is for me.
If music doesn’t help you grow,
it’s not much good for anything;
and only growing older makes
songs that have seasons after spring.

I’m just an outlaw over 40
whose wild days of drinking binges are long past
and who’s started slowing down to find
those things along the path that tend to last.
You may laugh at my appearance
and believe this song should be played twice as fast;
but it’s not your song, it’s mine; when you
build your own car, you can waste your own gas.

I’m just an outlaw over 40
who can’t line dance or pretend it’s not too loud
if I can’t hear myself think, and tend to
get a little frightened by the crowd
that is full of fight and vinegar, not doing much
but acting tough and proud.
I won’t say that’s not my country, but
intruding on my space is not allowed.

Music’s not just for the young,
to sell some product on TV.
It’s about sharing of your life;
at least, that’s how it is for me.
If music doesn’t help you learn,
it’s not much good for anything;
and only learning to grow old
makes songs with seasons after spring.

19 NOV 2005

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Spring Cleaning

Today spring cleaning must begin for real:
let winter’s dull and hibernating dust
find ends of brooms; quick, scour away the rust
to let the nearing sunlight glint reveal

the sparkled surface that has long been marred
by candles and their residue of ash;
and that stockpile of season’s greetings cash,
if not gone, spend it — load up the bank card

with fresh, green plants, and mulch, and potting soil,
with cleansers, rags, and sponges, buckets, too.
So little time is left, so much to do:
Let’s move it. Put the kettle on to boil.

Forget that lazy book or quiet game
of backgammon, or sleeping in ’til noon.
Ye gods, you know it’s very nearly June,
and we’re still hibernating. What a shame.

Hie forth with mowers, rakes, and pruning shears;
dust off the cobwebs and dried leaves from fall.
Pack up the sweaters, heavy coats and shawls –
We’ve got to push, now that the weather’s clear.

07 MAY 2005

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An Ostara Blessing

Today the dark begins at last to fade,
the Winter’s fulcrum balanced with the Spring.
Once great and mighty shadows turn mere shade,
and green returns to color growing things.

Rejoice! The world is born again from seed.
It cracks the brittle crust of earth to reach
out for the sun’s return, its will to breed
and manifest all nature’s divine speech.

Rejoice! No more on cold and bitter thoughts
allow the hibernating heart to dwell;
The fallow time, when actions come to naught,
has ended. Broken is the sunless spell.

Today, the light returns to take its place,
with Summer’s children growing in its womb.
Let melancholy no more taint your face;
Throw back the shutters! Let Spring in the room!

Rejoice! The season for despair is through;
Just look — snow melts, and leaves begin to show.
Once more, the world is sacred, fresh and new,
and waits for you likewise to find it so.

This equinox I wish for friend and foe
alike to find perspective they may lack;
in our own darkness, to see some light grow,
and in our sun-washed days, respect the black.

21 MAR 2005

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