Sunday, April 3, 2016

April in Ohio--the Denise Levertov Poem

April in Ohio

By Denise Levertov

Each day
the cardinals call and call in the rain,
each cadence scarlet
among leafless buckeye.
and passionately
the redbuds that can’t wait
like other blossoms, to flower
from fingertip twigs,
break forth.
as Eve from Adam’s
cage of ribs,
straight from amazed treetrunks.


Lumps of snow

are melting in tulip-cups. #


Long ago, around 1976, when I was working as an English tutor at the University of Cincinnati, a colleague by the name of Sarah Cotterill showed me this poem by Denise Levertov. I think the great poet had been a visiting professor at the University of Cincinnati around 1975 or so--and wrote this poem in response to Ohio's treacherous spring weather. Sarah Cotterill herself is a wonderful poet and has published some fine books of poetry.

Forsythia

Forsythia in snow, and a frozen daffodil

The only intact daffodils are ones I picked a couple days ago!

View from my deck on a snowy April 3, 2016

Cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, all sorts of birds, around my birdfeeders this morning

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