The Workings of Spring
March 08, 2017 |
| Photo courtesy Thomas B. |
Introduction
by Ted Kooser: This year’s
brutal winter surely calls for a poem such as today’s selection, a peek at the
inner workings of spring. Susan Kelly-DeWitt lives and teaches in Sacramento.
Apple Blossoms
One evening in
winter
when nothing
has been enough,
when the days
are too short,
the nights too
long
and cheerless,
the secret
and docile
buds of the apple
blossoms begin
their quick
ascent to
light. Night
after
interminable night
the sugars
pucker and swell
into green
slips, green
silks. And
just as you find
yourself at
the end
of winter’s
long, cold
rope, the
blossoms open
like pink
thimbles
and that black
dollop
of shine
called
bumblebee
stumbles in.
American Life
in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org),
publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English
at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2001 by Susan
Kelly-DeWitt, whose most recent book of poems is The Fortunate Islands,
Marick Press, 2008. Poem reprinted from To a Small Moth, Poet’s Corner
Press, 2001, by permission of Susan Kelly-DeWitt and the publisher.
Introduction copyright 2017 by The Poetry Foundationi. The introduction’s
author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry
to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
2 comments
I am starting to have the Spring Fever...It was an especially brutal winter for me for various reasons...
ReplyDeleteDear Rita--I know you've been going through some things, and I sincerely hope Spring ushers in a happier, brighter time. Sending you a virtual hug!
ReplyDelete