by Pari
In just spring
the world is as mudluscious as ever it could be (in a desert).
I haven’t seen the goat-footed balloon man, but can hear the clip clop of his dancing hooves.
It’s just
spring and
Fruit trees quiver clothed in white and pale pink blossoms
they
dot yards
otherwise grayish and dormant with the remnants of winter.
Tulips bloom in bright reds and yellows
Purple hyacinths scent the air
And . . .
Verily, yay verily
I don’t want to do squat.
My productivity is in the pot . . .
Actually, that’s not quite true. I do want to garden and take long walks to admire the wakening world. I want to sprawl on my stomach with the sun warming my back. I want to bury my nose in the still brown grass in the park near my house and smell the earth as it embraces this magical new season.
I want to eat chocolate
and fresh strawberries.
I want to nibble on the first leaves of peppermint and fennel now pushing forth from plants I’d forgotten were there.
I want to gaze at brilliant blue skies and marvel at ever-changing cloudlets.
Why does glorious spring always do this to me?
Why do I look at my life —
no matter whether I worked by myself at home
or now labor in an office with numerous cohorts
— and ponder its lack of color and adventure?
Why do I want to shed more than the heavy, scratchy sweaters of winter and dance
free
free
free
in the crystal darkness of a perfect spring night?
And how the hell am I going to reconcile these urges with the necessity to work and tow the line for the next month or so until the sun beats down with brilliant mercilessness (in the scorching New Mexico summertime) and I once more want to be indoors in air-conditioned bliss?
It’s just spring in Albuquerque
And I can hear the plants growing in my yard
can sense them calling for attention . . .
The words and work that fill my necessary days seem trivial compared to
the first-seen violet and orange iris bursting open at sunrise.
Like an alert doe sniffing the wind,
my nose and mouth taste the new greenness of each unfurling leaf
on each branch of weeping willow and sturdy elm.
Like Ulysses, I must tie myself to the mast of obligation and cover mine eyes Monday through Friday.
Oh, but Saturday and Sunday are upon me and, lo, I do rejoice.
________________________________________________
What’s your favorite season? Why?
What’s the weather like in your corner of the world?
It's raining.
It's raining like Wagner is up there –or down there, depending on your belief system and how you feel about Wagner — directing the sturm und drang.
I think all this was supposed to be a blizzard, if not The Blizzard, but there's not much precipitation can do with a week of 70F-plus weather.
My productivity usually doubles when it rains, but my sinuses don't know what to do with a March like this either and are staging an agonizing rebellion.
I'm envious of your Spring and your beautiful homage to mr. cummings . . . All I can think of is cats and dogs and Valkyries falling from the sky.
Oh, and I do love my ee cummings.
And it sounds like you're being pretty productive to me…
Obviously, you are far from I-40, Pari! I know what you mean about the arrival of spring. Here in CT, we are trying to make the leap. Last week I heard birds singing in the early morning for the first time this year, a sure sign the season is coming. And that day, I just had to be out in it. So, a friend and I worked in a beautiful library with lots of windows, and then we ate lunch looking out upon a marina. Spring with its freedom has its wonder-filled moments, but I also am drawn to fall with its color and sweater-calling temps.
We are having our one week of winter, just under the wire before spring. Pouring rain for two days and freezing. Well, relatively. Snow up there on the mountains, thank God, we're going to need every little bit of snow pack we can get.
My favorite season is fall, hands down. I love the wind and the warmth and the back-to-school excitement of something completely new starting.
Sarah,
All that happy talk of spring got smashed yesterday when the winds came. They were so ferocious, they knocked down one of my trees. So don't envy me too much. At least I'll get some work done this week!
Stephen,
Thank you.
I love ee too. As a matter of fact, when I was in high school I spent many of my breaks with another girl and we read him to each other. Very fun!
Sandy,
Actually, I-40 goes right through ABQ.
I think spring is more pronounced here than fall — otherwise I'd feel more strongly about that season as well. I remember it being so gorgeous in Michigan, just stunning.
Alex,
I'm not surprised that fall is your fav. When I read your description, I marveled at the "wind and the warmth" because here in NM, it's usually very dry, still and has the cool down that presages winter. But the back-to-school energy is very much here and for a week or two is exciting and fun.
Good old ee! This poem compelled me to pull out my old ee "Complete Poems 1913-1962." I'd actually forgotten that I own it.
I'm definitely an autumn girl. It's equivalent to the New Year for me. (I always loved the start of new school year, with the new school supplies and fresh inspiration.)
Here in Northern California, we are having our winter. We need the rain and snow, as Alex said, but I'm cold, and I don't like it. Everything is starting to bloom because it was so warm, and now they must be confused. My favorite season is fall with its sense of approaching school, and of course the foliage, and sense of anticipation for the season. I live on the coast, and the temperatures don't change that much, but it is beautiful.
It's HOT. Always, always, always hot 🙁
Spring is very loud to me – all the color and buzzing and I always fancy I can actually HEAR everything growing and hatching and digging out. I get a little manic in the spring.
My favorite season by far is fall. I love the way the light gets in fall, and the colors of the changing leaves. I love when the nights get cold and everything blazes up before winter moves in.
There's an energy to the fall that I feel in my cells but unlike spring I can be productive in the fall in ways I am generally not in the springtime. Right now I'm bouncing from one thing to the other with writing – the thing that grounds me is digging and planting. So I'm doing a lot of that right now!
Sometimes I think you need a break – mental and physical. And obviously spring is telling you that! 'Take a little break and marvel at me'.
It's Autumn/Fall here at the moment, so cold mornings but still warmish during the day. My favourite season is summer. I definitely prefer the warmer weather and we generally have a dry heat rather than humid heat here in Melbourne. Then again, I also like spring but only because it means summer's not too far away and I LOVE magnolia trees when they first bloom.
Phillipa
Hey, I'm a Brit. Whatever the weather's doing we're neither a) happy about it, or b) prepared for it 🙂