Saturday, April 21, 2012

Spring Walk





The redwing blackbirds are back and chattering overhead.  The males choose the highest branches, the very tips, or the tops of cattails--always the impossible perch.  Their glossed black wings are capped with scarlet flashing and stripes of toy-box yellow, all the better to swoop the meadow--my heart's own superheroes.

Far below them the females pose as sparrows, brown and busy with the muddy work of spring.  Weavers and builders, they flit from grasses to bulrushes with neither pomp nor circumstance, but  purpose.  

And all around them, the meadow blooms.  The forest floor rustles with the sound of groundhogs gathering dead leaves for their dens at the edge of the woods.  Forsythia spill their gold tresses along the hillside--they've two weeks to be divas, then it's back to the chorus line.  

I walk the path between field and marsh, marking the progress of wild roses.  Long after I'm gone, the owls will take flight, but I like knowing they are here now.  I see them in my mind's eye as I circle back to the woods where the daffodils will reign for another week.  The peonies wait in the wings.

None of them care that I am here, which is just as it should be.  In my hand is cupped a tiny pine cone, its scales thin as parchment.  The wind picks up and the branches of pine trees rustle like petticoats.  The whole world seems on the verge, and yet this moment right now is the only one that counts.

At the last turn around the meadow a redwing sparks in the branches of a birch.  His song is the last thing I hear before I head home.   

8 comments:

  1. A beautiful prose poem Gigi!

    I love to hear the distinctive sounds of the redwing blackbirds...it means spring and summer to me.

    How I wish that spring were not quite so fleeting as it is:)
    Happy Earth Day!

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  2. LOVELY... pure loveliness, Gigi! Spring is slowly unfolding here. We await the unfurling of tulips. :o) Later this week and be away in Vienna for a few days. See you soon again in blogland! :o) ((HUGS))

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  3. I come to your blog often for a dose of 'cheer me up' but today you have me tearing up with your beautiful word pictures of the unfolding of the season.
    Thank you :)

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  4. Oh beautiful, Gigi! I was right there with you, reading this, thank you.
    It's so wonderful to hear the garden alive with busy birdsong, and our resident jackdaws chuck-chuck down my bedroom chimney at dawn.
    You have perfectly recreated that feeling of the world that 'seems on a verge'.

    Your photos are simply stunning. That last one looks like my back garden in late summer. <3 xx

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  5. see? magical. i have just experienced a magical walk in the woods as spring comes alive through you ... perfectly perfect and absolutely uplifting ...
    thank you.
    sing spring ... : )
    xxo
    pg

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  6. sorry ... i also wanted to add how exquisite your photos are and i loved learning more about the redwing blackbird ~ thank you!
    xo
    pg

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  7. Gorgeous images in photos and in words to describe Spring. Just beautiful!

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