Happy Spring!

If you're in our time zone, Spring officially begins at 5:45 PM CDT. The waterfowl and raptors that didn't overwinter are returning. Sap in maple trees is probably all confused about what to do because the nights aren't consistently getting below freezing. (You know, one sap says to another "Did we miss the Spring run this year?") Most wildflowers won't bloom for awhile, but I've seen local reports that skunk cabbage has started to emerge. (Somehow, it just doesn't feel right writing about skunk cabbage as a wildflower.) You might want to look into the Minnesota Phenology Network (part of the USA Network) which suggests these species for monitoring. They didn't include a normal sign of Spring that many of us look forward to, Minnesota legislative adjournment sometime in mid-May.

red maple leaf out: April 8, 2014   When in 2015?

Photo by J. Harrington

Song for Spring Equinox

Diane di Prima 

It is the first day of spring, the children are singing
(they are supposed to be sleeping) the clock is ticking
the cats are waiting for supper, one of them pregnant
kittens to herald the spring, nothing is blooming
nothing seems to bloom much around farms, just hayfields
   and corn
farms are too pragmatic, I look at ads
for hydrangea bushes, which I hate they remind me of
   brooklyn

for chinese wisteria vines, which I can’t picture
but they sound exotic and mysterious
a kind of blue purple, I decide I’ll get some

will I be disappointed, will they be yellow?
will I hate the Shetland pony we are buying
will we run out of wholewheat flour this week
before a new supply drives up from the city?

oh, it is very like being a pioneer,
but then everything is in this country, and in the country
especially. it was like being a pioneer on 5th street, too
and houston street, and amsterdam avenue
and in brooklyn, under the streetlights growing up
rollerskating at dusk with stickball games in the street
was the most pioneery of all,

it is slightly boring,
it tastes a lot of the times crossword puzzle
and ordering things thru the mail, which never come
or turn out wrong, or come the wrong color (wisteria)

I can’t blame Alan for planning to go to India
to free his kundalini, so that his ears peel
or something dreadful happens to his physique
we are built for the exotic, we americans, this landscape leaves us
as open as a piece of chocolate cream pie

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