April is Poetry Month: Day 22

 I still have enough poetry books on my shelves to make it to the end of the month choosing a book and sharing a poem from it, but I'd like to change it up a bit and share a poem I wrote about April.

Morning Run in April, Interrupted by a Sudden Sound. . .

Three geese, 

photo image created on BeCasso
from an original by J. Doolittle

dipping tails into 

a pond of pigment,

rise,

and with broad strokes 

paint sky where there had been none.

More join the canvas

Adding clouds 

and trees--

budding and expectant.

I forget to watch my feet.

Two robins, 

Draw a solid stripe across my path

And settle on the grass,

Green, without a doubt,

Their shadows.

                                Jean Doolittle, 1995

I wrote this while I was in a poetry class and it benefited greatly from the critiques I received.  It began overly verbose and sentimental, but we found that the heartwood was good and pruned it to discover the proper form and shape.  I hope you can feel some of the magical transition that can happen only in spring; a transformation of the land, the life upon it, and ourselves, if we simply open ourselves to the experience.