SPRING BREAK Journal: Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Yesterday the temperate weather loitered with us a while longer (it’s due to leave tomorrow). One of the highlights of my day was a walk in the park, and I couldn’t believe the pleasant feeling in the air. It was an overcast afternoon, but that didn’t detract from the sense that spring was not only just around the corner, but was actually present with me as I strolled the walkways. I sat for a few minutes on a bench, listening to a chapter from Jane Eyre and taking in the understated loveliness of the pond and the grassy lawn beyond. I also listened to a few poems on a new audio CD of great poems of the Romantic Age. Spring has always been poetry time for me, and, as usual, I can feel the wellsprings of poetry rising inside me these days. When the weather starts warming, lines of poetry seem to sing to me in especially beautiful ways. In fact, I hope to write a poem or two every day during my vacation. Why not? If daffodils can start sprouting (I saw some two-inch sprouts in the park yesterday), why not poems? Since it seems effortless for the earth to grow daffodils in March, why not poems for me?