Tag Archives: springtime

REPLANTING DEMOCRACY

Leonoras Widow’s Tears, from Breck’s bulbs, planted 4-24-2025

The Holland roots arrived today.

They still need to soak

before I can plant them

deep enough to grow.

What Leonora’s tears will bring

to the garden yet this Spring,

I do not yet know.

The soil is as dark as ever.

This is no reason to fear.

It does not mean it lacks

the ability to accept seeds that grow

into new ideas, new joys, new hopes

beyond our current capacity to know

what wonders in freedom’s garden

will seek light, grow upright and glow

amid the new plantings we start today,

across new paths and waterways,

across neighbors’ fields 

on new roads and byways

joining the others we already know.

Together we continue to sow

new seeds of freedom, perhaps hybridized

alongside the naturalized and native plants

that make our yards, our streets,

our neighborhoods, our nation states,

our very planet come alive again

in even more fruitful and beautiful ways.

I plant with hope this day and every day.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

photo by W. Melvin, April 2025

Time Springs forward

dragging darkness 

behind the lines

sketched on icy nights,

chilled by winds of change

blowing against the heat of sunlight,

marching tentatively 

amid the raindrops

on hardened feet,

with tender hearts,

and fretful minds.

Where will this end?

wonder insects, birds and bees.

Will flowers and gardens of delight

ever bloom in peace again ?

Books, plays, trans, 

people of color and women,

Jews and Muslims banned.

Libraries and museums shuttered.

Voice of America and PBS silenced ?

Knowledge buried with past misdeeds

and hidden gems of wisdom covered

by the mulch of indifference and lies. 

How fast time flies

while truth is shattered and put asunder.

Forgotten history betrayed and bended,

despite our promise, “Never again!” has ended.

Now is the time to save the light.

Daily, now, again and again.

Spring into the light and fight.

Again and again and again

until the darkest days of winter

are overcome by a freedom summer’s light.

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Soulstice

One day is all it takes

for Autumn to blow away

on ice-laden winds

that shock lawns

with frost as thick as thieves

robbing us of long walks amid the trees

which shelter us from too strong a breeze.

Our path is no longer clear

of the detritus of Fall,

of our fall from grace, putting us in our place

inside the  hidden thoughts of our minds;

until the sun shines strong  and deliberate,

with a design to clear the mind.

For now, we wait in hope

for longer days and shorter nights

until we can alight guided

by a Stronger  Light

until Spring returns 

to awaken our sight

and warm our souls.

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