Looking out my classroom window at the greying hues found in the seamless connection between the sidewalk and the cloudy sky, I hear the birds making an announcement. Despite this week’s official arrival, Spring has been working its way up from the ground since Valentine’s Day. The arrival of the red cardinal up in our neighbor’s birch tree happens right around the same day every year and from that point Spring comes. Some years the Snowdrops break through the crusty, old snow first and others, Winter Aconite is the winner. We live in a part of the country that usually gets hit by unseasonably warm temperatures around Mother’s Day causing just about every person to remark, “Wow, what happened to Spring? We’ve already moved into summer.” Well, it’s been quietly creeping up on you since mid-February. Stop. Take an early look and listen.
My classes compose Spring themed poems in April because it is National Poetry Month, but also because Spring is about all things new and a poem splashes this truth across the page. Here’s a little one about one of my favorite Spring flowers that you can’t buy in the grocery store, pictured above – Winter Aconite or in fancy circles:
Eranthus
Always in a race
with your neighbor,
the Snowdrop,
pressing forward
out of winter despite
your common name,
Winter Aconite.
Unexpected
ray of ground
level sunshine,
friendly buttercup,
enveloped by
poisonous leaves.
If I eat you
like your friend Digitalis
I’d drop back to
earth, my cardia
arrested.
You like to live
on the edge,
between winter and
spring, life giving
yellow warmth
and icy cold
death.