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Equinox Blues

Welcome to spring! The last snow may be past,
_and bright blue frames the parting clouds.
The sun rides longer in the sky, at last,
_than lost to night’s slow–ebbing shrouds.

The weather’s clearing but, alas, not warming;
_light sparkles on our coldest day
since winter last. No honeybees are swarming:
_they’re told, “rest hive–bound.” They obey.

A theory starts a–budding in my brain
_(peculiar, fancy–filled theater)
that never will the summer cross again
_the thin belt known as the equator;

instead, just like the pendulum in clocks,
_the axis of our globe will swing,
retreating from the vernal equinox
_as northerners lament lost spring;

then steadily pursue its novel course,
_stolidly winter solstice–bound;
and reaching it, stilled by some unknown force,
_rest three months while the earth spins ‘round,

And so on … But no—best presume somehow
the earth will muddle through: it has till now.

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Spring’s Summons

__The sun’s rays, duly paced
from February till the end of winter,
__have steadily erased
the thick carpet of white. They prompt the Tinter

__out of long hibernation:
“Well, act! You see the drab and sullen straits
__about. Time for elation:
to green, pink, blue, and yellow raise the gates,

__“and vibrant purple, too—
not just from ground and vine, from shrub and tree,
__but more: the lively view
should shine in window panes for all to see.

__“Let marshes, ponds, and lakes
cast off their pallid stillness; let our power
__gleam on their swells and breaks,
from break of dawn till our departing hour.

“That done, the sounds to suit will soon be heard:
leaves rustling, brooklet gushing, chirping bird.”

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Julian D. Woodruff writes poetry and short fiction for children and adults. He recently finished 2020-2021, a poetry collection. A selection of his work can be read at Parody Poetry, Lighten Up Online, Carmina Magazine, and Reedsy.

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3 Responses

  1. Joseph S. Salemi

    “Spring’s Summons” does something striking: it gives God a new name.

    The main speaker is “the Tinter,” who wakes up from winter hibernation and acts to bring back all the multiplex hues of springtime. God is imagined as a sleeping painter who, after waking up, decides to spread color everywhere. This shows how the necessity of rhyme can frequently lead to an unexpected leap in diction-choice and in figurative usage. “Tinter” was clearly generated in the act of composition by the need to find a rhyme with “winter.” And so all of a sudden we have a new idea about God.

    Reply
  2. Gigi Ryan

    Dear Julian,
    I loved reading your thoughtful musings about the change of seasons. My favorite is the final couplet, which is as musical as the “brooklet gushing” and the “chirping bird.”
    Gigi

    Reply
  3. Margaret Coats

    What an imagination, Julian! The globe deciding to roll backward from the spring equinox! That sounds like singing the blues, for sure. I’m glad you decide (on the basis of its past performance) that earth will muddle through. Yours is far from the worst doomsday theory. Glad too that you brighten up in “Spring’s Summons.” Interesting that the first feature called for is color. From my days in places where the season could be slow to arrive, I recall forsythia gold blooms springing before green leaves came out.

    Reply

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