Today marks the end of February. In less than a month spring will have sprung, Still,Β you may be ready for spring now, not in three weeks. Here are the thoughts of Jane Kenyon, once New Hampshire’s poet laureate, anticipating the blooms of spring inΒ her meditation “February Thinking of Spring”

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. . . or the appearance of blooms on dogwood

Dogwood

Before winter turned into spring, visits to the flower show in Philadelphia restored my Grandma Longenecker’s spirits. Or leafing through a Burpee Seed catalog.

In a letter to me during my sophomore year in collegeΒ Grandma wrote about her May flowers that followed a harsh winter:

Lots of people have colds but daffodils are out β€œwith their yellow frilled bonnets” (I have 5 kinds of them) were a joy to behold. Double tulips are at their best. Next the lilacs and valley lilies.

 


Yes, fickle February will soon melt into March madness. To heraldΒ the coming month, I shall make a poetic prediction. My good friend/muse Merril Smith has inspired me to try a new form, the shadorma, one of the many poetry challenges she has embraced on her website recently along with echo poems, triolets, and lantern shapes.

The shadorma must form 6 lines of 3-5-3-3-7-5 syllables and make sense.

Fickle month

Bye, February

St. Pat’s Day

Irish rule

Daylight Savings Time, Oh Dread

Celebrate: Easter!

 

Did you count the syllables? Β  πŸ™‚

What flowers populate yourΒ dreams of spring?

If you live in South Africa or Australia, your seasons are reversedΒ soΒ you may have a different vision.Β What in nature lifts your spirits right now?

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Coming next: How to Teach a Piano Lesson