Spring Equinox 18

Spring Equinox ‘18

the Spring Equinox soon comes,

so I find the Duplex Cookies for the celebration:

the half-vanilla, half-chocolate treats to represent

the halving of the day into light and dark,

in our yard, crocus, daffodil, hyacinth, and Stokesia

continue to ply their trade,

redbud is ready to erupt,

while the maple has sort of ventured forth,

the dogwood are still tightly withdrawn:

the midwinter cold a cautionary tale

that many plants heed,

I found the right time in February

to plant my first sugar snap peas and lettuce,

so that they might listen more to the day than to the night,

to sprout and reach toward the sky,

within me I reach to be like the blueberry bud:

full of hope and promise, the urge to get on with it,

I surprise myself when I check out the bluebird house

and discover the first plaiting of pine straw into nest,

the bluebirds must feel the new life within,

and they prepare for it,

clouds continue to blur the transition,

Spring Equinox dawns wet, sodden with gray light,

through midday the clouds still mute the light

and blur the shadows,

winter morphs into spring as if behind curtains,

here in the East, trees obscure the horizon,

and clouds worry themselves with phase change,

rain to snow?

water is ready to serve as the agent 

to allow hope to become summer

and summer to build to the bounty of fall,

life must trust that the turning will come round right.

by Henry H. Walker
March 20, ‘18