Spring? Sprung? Sprang?

© harrington

Hi! Come in out of the snow, take your boots off and put your feet up. This is what sunset looked like on tax day. There's even more snow there now. It took me almost three hours this afternoon to drive from Minneapolis to home. I'm hoping this heavy, wet snow doesn't bring a large tree onto the house. A medium size pine came down across the driveway this afternoon. The daughter's Significant Other was in the vicinity at the time and didn't jump far enough, fast enough and it caught him on the back of the head. For revenge (and to clear the driveway) he cut it up. Nice guy. 

Today was/is Poem in your Pocket Day. I should have mentioned it yesterday. You would have been able to find out about it earlier if not for the above mentioned long drive home. Now that we've segued from snow to poetry (we have, haven't we?), I want to commend to your attention a book published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press titled Where One Voice Ends Another Begins, 150 Years of Minnesota Poetry, edited by Robert Hedin. Kay Boyle (1902-1993) has a poem whose title is so apt for today:

O This Is Not Spring

O this is not spring but in me
           there is a murmuring of new things
This is the time of a dark winter in the heart
           but in me are green traitors

The dead lie apart with their throats laid full with sorrow
And the blood of the living moves slow in the cold...

Please go find a copy and read the rest on pages 29 and 30. My reading is that this poem conforms to some, but not all, of Snyder's points. At a minimum, I'd question the Bear as totem, and, maybe, the science points. On the other hand, I'm not sure we're being fair to Ms. Boyle, because her intent may not have been to write a "nature poem." What do you think? Thanks for listening. Rants, raves and reflections served daily here in My Minnesota.