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Bonanza

The March of rains has staked its claim, its boast
_To brag upon these thousand hills,
_and opened the sluice of the motherlode
_to mantle the slopes in yellow and gold.

_From Tehachapi to the poppied coast,
_meadowlark-loud with whistles and trills,
_Spring’s linen is laid along every road,
_a bounteous feast to have and to hold

_in mind ever more, in memory most
_dispelling the gloom of dark dwelling chills
_and warm to these wonders Wisdom bestowed—
_an ever green gold that never wears old.

_You are the gold that prefigures our Spring
_to brightening bloom, brimming beyond tally,
_indulging each slight, each all anything,
_always da capo, never finale.

Angelic bells hover above and ring,
and your heart replies ever echoing.

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Jonathan Kinsman’s book length poem, ‘Canso of California,’ won the 2006 James Irvine Award for the “Best Narrative Poem about California.” He was the first  Laureate to serve two counties simultaneously from 2012-2020. His commentary and poems appeared recently (Jan 2024) in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. He toils in the vineyards of the Lord, aka, 8th grade public school English classes in northern Sacramento Valley. 

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2 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Fascinating rhyme scheme that cleverly fixates on California golden springs. Yes, I know where Tehachapi is with Golden Hills and Tehachapi hills nearby.
    The Italian ” da capo” of musical scores is an inspired insertion that lets us know it is repetitive. Well done.

    Reply
  2. Margaret Coats

    Thanks, Jonathan, for the California coloring. I’m impressed by the Golden State words and observations carefully applied here. Although we do have an “ever green gold that never grows old,” it does take the rains to bring it into the open. Good touch to make that first line longer than the others. And appropriate finale (the poem, after all, must have one) of the rarely heard mission bells hovering above and inspiring heartfelt echoes.

    Reply

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