primavera

In college I sang the song "Primavera" by Celius Dougherty it was one of my favorites, mostly for the fantastic vocabulary used.

Here is what I can remember of the poem by Sara Teasdale

'Spring has arrived.

It is no use your telling me to look at the calendar

and saying that it is 5 good days 'til the 21st of March

Is the year bound to obey the almanac-makers?

O, model of all egregious pedants!

Would you shackle Spring to times and seasons,

or catch her back by her long green skirt 'til the moment you have planned for her?

She has stolen a March this year, for certain!

Today at sunrise I saw a white-breasted nuthatch running up the branch of the oak tree that was so broken by the ice-storm last December.

And in the garden a pheasant was picking grains out of the manure covering the garden beds.

There is a snow-drop up by the porch shot clean through the tulip straw.

And the crows are all agog over the neighbor's pine trees.

It is a game of catch who catch can with that green skirt then.

Even though, in your passion for order,

you bring about a snowstorm tomorrow,

it will not matter to me.

This morning, I saw the Spring!"