It’s World Poetry Day again today and here’s something from Roddie McKenzie to mark the occasion.
Hymn to Spring
Where the Stirling skyline jabs the sky with steeples,
and chimneys peg the grey town around Castle Hill,
the sun guyed down by ropes of manila light,
pitches a tent of smoky topaz.
Iced peaks on the horizon are gates to a wilder month.
But here Winter`s pale advance has been stalled,
by these hoary regiments of trees.
No longer flamboyant green Hussars.
Yet these gnarled veterans have endurance,
and the life-thrust of another season,
fused by the buds,
on their black bony arms.
A verdant counter attack, primed
for Spring`s fresh advance.
And as I consider their timeless conflict,
I go once again into the breach.
I see that to live is to die a little in every moment
and be re-born in each new experience.
In hymns of seasons,
I`ll re-arrange my rhymes and reasons,
as trees do.
I`ll learn to laugh with the scything humour of the Autumn gales
and shed spent copper hopes,
tenderly.
As we do.
———————-
Roddie McKenzie