Tuesday's Poem: A Song of Spring

.
A SONG OF SPRING

(to Anne)

in the bouncing kowhai
tui court, the snowball
tree sprouts green shoots
daphne scents the section
cat spends more time
outside, tulips sway in
their pots.

                a hurtle of wings
ignoring the gale, tui cavort
past,

          it is the season
for swings and flings,
a ballerina dancing
to applause as off stage
an old troubadour expires

Harvey McQueen

I planned put up for today’s Tuesday Poem the previous blog. But re-reading it in ‘Goya Rules’ I came across this one, which I wrote last Sepember. It seemed apposite.

Things are the same outside but different. Tulips sway in their pots, change of colour but there’ve been tulips in those pots each spring for over twenty years. Bloom laden are the two daphne bushes. And tui drama on in the kowhai tree. Strong winds still blow. Minstrel winter is as ever reluctant to shuffle off the stage.

I’m a year older – that’s the big change. But as usual for this time of the year there is this sense of hope, joy and returning vitality.

Next spring? Ah! That’s another question.