Today is something of an anniversary for me. Seven years ago, on this day, I wrote my first adult poem. I remember this because it was the last day of winter, and unusually warm. The poem was about a new crush after a long relationship had ended. I’m sure it would be highly embarrassing to look at now, not least of all because the crush in question went resolutely nowhere, but somehow the metaphor of unexpected spring seemed to fit the moment well. I suppose that, all cliches aside, it did.
I went on to write several poems about spring, but have not done so for some time. I became a little more ambivalent towards spring over the last few years. It seemed to draw me reluctantly out of my winter hibernation, when I, like an unsettled hermit, would much rather be left alone.
This spring is different. Much in my life is changing, and though I do not know where any of it will lead, I am slowly learning what it is to trust the God who orders all the seasons alike and purposes love through them all. Today’s poem looks at this idea. I hope you enjoy it.
And to those living in the southern hemisphere, happy last day of winter.
The Week of the Cherry Blossoms
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us…
(T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land)
And it will surprise us, this week out of nowhere,
Grey mornings and overcast noons replaced
With this unexpectedness of pink
Blossoms bespeckling trees fresh from winter,
A shower of tenderness covering limbs,
Pianissimo moment in spring’s overture,
The redness of leaves soon to take August’s place,
This week just one window of delicate peace,
After winter’s refuge from sunbeams.
No fear; the sun cannot harm us by day, nor
New growth take us where we would rather avoid:
The seasons work, hands held, together,
Guided by logic and purpose and love,
Not arousing or waking what’s better asleep
But harvesting hope as it springs.
The Consolations of Writing 
Strangely wonderful to read this as we begin to recognise the hand of autumn in the air.
I’m glad! Personally, I’ve always preferred autumn to spring, but I think I am unusual in feeling this way.
Maybe it has something to do with when we are born – our first experience of the outside world?
Well, I was born in winter. Does that explain it?
Well, I don’t know, but changes between seasons are important to humans – masked by the cities we build. I guess we have always had to adapt. What do you know about the year you were born? I was born in the autumn.