One step forward, two back; two forward, one back

Welcome to Day 3 of National Poetry Month at My Minnesota. This morning, as we approached home in the Subaru after doing some errands, we were blessed to have a pair of swans fly over us. (Some day, when I get lucky or skillful, or both, I'm going to be outside with my camera when swans fly by and I'll be able to get a great photo.) Aldo Leopold has written that "There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot." Count me among those who cannot. The trio of sand hill cranes that yesterday flew over the back yard, this morning's swan sighting, the return of the geese all make me feel alive. In a world or a life without such encounters, my heart might still beat but my soul would be dead. Connie Wanek, representing St. Louis County in County Lines, nicely captures this month's changes in our north country.

swans and geese on the ice, early Spring    © harrington

Connie Wanek

April

When the snow bank dissolved
I found a comb and a muddy quarter
I found the corpse of that missing mitten
still clutching some snow.

Then came snow with lightning,
beauty with a temper.
And sleet, the compromise that pleases no one;
precipitation by committee.

Out on Lake Superior the worried ice
paces up and down the shoreline
wearing itself out.

Chimneys have given up smoking.
In the balcony of the wood,
a soprano with feathers.

And upon the creek
the wicked spell is broken.
You are free to be water now.
You are free to go.

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