Spring dreams

 It’s the eve of Valentine’s Day and the Ides of February [scroll down on the linked page]. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy [½ an inch or more]. What kind of a mess do you think we’ll be faced with on Wednesday as temperatures drop back below freezing? Late winter and early spring in our North  Country  are as often full of problems as promises. This time the problem is we won’t get above freezing again until mid-day Saturday. Remember when studded tires were legal?

Two of the amaryllis that missed blooming for winter solstice have developed nice flower buds. It looks like they’ll be in bloom well before Easter, maybe by Ash Wednesday? Most of the tulips and hyacinths in the  downstairs bulb garden are fading. Once the roads get de-iced, we may need to consider getting something to help us maintain a reason to believe until outside begins to bloom and green after it rethaws once, or twice, or thrice, or ??? more this season.

will the dreaded dragon’s teeth return?

Photo by J. Harrington

 I was reminded earlier today that T. S. Elliot wrote, in The Waste Land, that “April is the cruellist month,”. If he had lived in Minnesota during February and March, his famous poem may well have opened differently. This transitional season leaves me feeling like a piñata, getting hit by the weather each time I turn around.

On the brighter side, I’ve been enjoying more time to read and finally got around to looking through a couple of issues of american poets. The Fall-Winter 2021 issue has a wonderful Margaret Noodin poem I want to share today. As the poet wrote, nicely linking the poem with  Black History Month:

“This poem was written after hearing Kwame Alexander and Rachel Martin talk about Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech ‘I Have a Dream’ which was inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem ‘I Dream a World.’ With all we’ve lost and learned this past year, and all that remains to be repaired, I thought perhaps we should all sit down and dream harder and more often with more clarity and infinite diversity.”
—Margaret Noodin

Nimbawaadaan Akiing / I Dream a World

Margaret Noodin

Nimbawaadaan akiing 
I dream a world 

atemagag biinaagami 
of clean water 

gete-mitigoog 
ancient trees 

gaye gwekaanimad 
and changing winds. 

Nimbawaadaan akiing 
I dream a world 

izhi-mikwendamang 
of ones who remember 

nandagikenindamang gaye 
who seek the truth and 

maamwidebwe’endamang waabang 
believe in tomorrow together. 

Nimbawaadaan akiing 
I dream a world 

izhi-biimiskobideg giizhigong 
where our path in the sky 

waabandamang naasaab 
can be seen as clearly as 

gaa-izhi-niibawid wiijibemaadizid 
the place where our neighbor once stood.

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