a sky full of occasion...

Ah spring, you fickle season!  We had three seasons all rolled up into one weird weather weekend ...

A spring day in Wisconsin can start with a lovely view out the back window (hello, Mr. Bunny!)...

and then progress to this...

and the dark black clouds then lead to this...

which somehow becomes this!!

Which means you start in short sleeves in the morning, and by afternoon you are unpacking boxes in search of a warm flannel top and fuzzy socks to wear by the fire, which you thought you were through with for the year! 

I ran across this delightful poem by local Madison poet Sarah Busse last year.  Doesn't it describe this time of year perfectly?  It reminds me how my mother always remarks this time of year that we need a good rain to wash away the gray.  Piles of shrinking snow, grit, salt, and mud definitely dot my landscape, and yet, outside my window right this very minute a little yoo-hoo bird (my name for the black-capped chickadees) is singing his heart out!  

Evening walk, Mid-March

by Sarah Busse

Tho' there is no new path, just the usual

neighborhood circle, familiar as the salt

caking the pavement squares.

Piles of shrinking snow humped up along the curbs,

each night the puddles freeze, each morning thaw,

and grass, clumped and frizzled, and mud.  Mud.

Gritty, dull, the land, the houses.  Everything

needs washing, and a second rinse cycle.

But the Sky is full of occasion -- robins.

Robins invisible

in the still-bare trees, twittering, chirruping

cheerily around the entire suburban block.

It couldn't be called song,

that curiously bubbling chatter-sound they make,

waxy and bibulous as a pubhouse or bridal shower.

cheerio, cheeri-up, killup, killaree, killup killaree, cheeri-up, cheerio

Come spring, that much-dreamed distant season, these trees

will bust out green, our salt-stained eyes

rejoice -- but not then, not again as

everywhere now the chirping of robins, and water running,

and then and now we are arrived at home.

From Quiver (Red Dragonfly Press, 2009)

A special thank you to the poet for graciously allowing me to use this wonderful spring poem in today's post.  You can read more about her at http://www.pw.org/content/sarah_busse.  I hope that today, in spite of a landscape that is still rather dull and dreary we can listen for the bird songs in our hearts!  As always, please remember that...