Sunday, April 29, 2018

Shacked up #NationalPoetryMonth #phenology

There was no sign of snow down around Baraboo the whole time we were there. As we returned home this morning, snow patches appeared about the time we were as far North as Turtle Lake. Meanwhile, across of much of Minnesota, there's a Red Flag fire warning. Spring in our North Country is an "interesting" (in the Minnesota sense) mixture.

"The Shack"
"The Shack"
Photo by J. Harrington

April, and thus National Poetry Month, are almost past. Our visit to Aldo Leopold's Shack offered us the first view of Spring's ephemeral wildflowers we've had this year. Next month we'll check some places we've discovered for other opportunities. For now, we'll just enjoy having visited a shrine that's being well preserved and listen for more of Spring's song.

bloodroot amidst daylilies(?), North side of "The Shack"
bloodroot amidst daylilies(?), North side of "The Shack"
Photo by J. Harrington


New Song



After William IX, Duke of Aquitaine

As sweetness flows through these new days,
the woods leaf out, and songbirds phrase
in neumes of roosted melody
incipits to a new song.
Then love should find lubricity
and quicken, having slept so long.

The bloodroot blossoms, well and good,
but I receive no word that would
set my troubled heart at ease,
nor could we turn our faces toward
the sun, and open by degrees,
unless we reach a clear accord.

And so our love goes, night and day:
it’s like the thorny hawthorn spray
that whips about in a bitter wind
from dusk to dawn, shellacked with sleet,
until the sun’s first rays ascend
through leaves and branches, spreading heat.

I have in mind one April morning
when she relented without warning,
relenting from her cold rebuff
in laughter, peals of happiness.
Sweet Christ, let me live long enough
to get my hands beneath her dress!

I hate the elevated talk
that disregards both root and stalk
and sets insipid pride above
vicissitudes of lust and strife.
Let others claim a higher love:
we’ve got the bread, we’ve got the knife.



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Please be kind to each other while you can.

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