Ephemeral spring

Wind is down. Temperature is up. Cloud cover is back. I’m sitting, looking out the window, grateful the house feels warmer, and fantasizing about spring ephemerals and fly fishing. I’m also wondering how many times this year spring will come, and go. Beginning tomorrow and for the rest of the month, daytime highs are forecast to reach above freezing. What do we call a January thaw that runs into February?

thaw-freeze cycles = icicles

Photo by J. Harrington

I doubt we’ve seen the end of winter, even with an extended thaw. We’ll probably get a seesaw pattern of cold and snow, melting, cold and snow, melting, lasting through April, maybe into May, despite NOAA’s seasonal outlook of "leaning above" temperatures and equal chances of above or below normal precipitation.

Personally, I’m on either a seesaw or a rollercoaster between looking forward to seasonal change milestones, such as arriving waterfowl, and anticipating what aberrant weather / climactic pattern will develop next. At least there’s a stack of books to read and a supply of coffee for drinking if we have to deal with weather extremes. For now, I plan on starting longer walks with the dogs as long as the temperatures stay above freezing. At least one of the three of us really needs the exercise.

Ephemeral Stream

Elizabeth Willis

This is the way water 
thinks about the desert.
The way the thought of water 
gives you something 
to stumble on. A ghost river.
A sentence trailing off
toward lower ground.
A finger pointing
at the rest of the show.

I wanted to read it. 
I wanted to write a poem 
and call it "Ephemeral Stream"
because you made of this 
imaginary creek
a hole so deep 
it looked like a green eye 
taking in the storm, 
a poem interrupted 
by forgiveness.

It's not over yet.
A dream can spend 
all night fighting off 
the morning. Let me
start again. A stream 
may be a branch or a beck, 
a crick or kill or lick,
a syke, a runnel. It pours 
through a corridor. The door 
is open. The keys
are on the dashboard. 

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.