equinox and contention

Spring of Conflict

in abstract the Spring Equinox has a balance about it

with daylight and darkness equal:

poised halfway between the Solstices,

looking back to when dark held sway,

looking forward to when light will hold sway,

yet I feel this morning,

as a near full moon sets to the west

and a bright sun rises in the east,

that this time is a contentious duality in conflict with itself,

not a peaceful harmony with all resolved:

the southern hope of bud and seed strain to release their growth

while brisk northern cold dares them to do so,

the frost and the flower fight for the day,

how appropriate that college basketball climaxes at this time

in abrupt teeters and totters as first one, and then the other, is higher,

and two days later contention resumes,

we are drawn to conflict in our stories,

maybe because life itself is organization versus chaos,

the new over the old until the new becomes the old,

spring can have a hard birth as if we’re not ready for the new ones

and our energies can be dormant and easily slip into nap 

and avoidance of what needs to be done,

change can be harsh in feel and action

for what was does not easily wrench itself into what will be,

now, what is, feels torn between stasis and a future so unknown it terrifies,

such moments have the fearful power of creation itself,

of life’s first step from the simplicity of dissolution

to the risk that every cell ventures with its being.

by Henry H. Walker

March ’13