Spring Sonnets

The cattail sheds its ragged over-coat

The pond, released from winter’s icy clutch

Lies mute, an amber gem on earth’s dull throat

As sepia landscapes ache for April’s touch

The sun frolics among the tumbled hills

Of cumulus and cirrus rivalry

And in the maple tree a robin trills

In carols of dissonant harmony

Ah spring, push back stark winter’s stricken shroud

And wash the earth with tears from heaven’s cloud

Renew love’s song upon our tepid lips

And stir within our hearts re-surging hope

As earth responds to verdant fingertips

We tune our ear to heaven’s calliope

For nature throbs with newness and with life

The old has passed away and it is done

Come; thrust aside the chains of harbored strife

Redemption sings in violet undertone

No merit dwells in trampled husks of loss

Come, leap for joy, as sorrow sheds its dross

As surely as when winter turns to spring

As surely as the bud inspiring bloom

As surely as faith’s quiet offering

So too, God’s grace dispels our cloak of doom

Come; cast aside your worry and despair

Tomorrow’s needs have never yet been met

Inhale the passion tinting fragrant air

The darling of life’s seasons lifts her head

With promises, not coin-tossed in the dark

She spreads her garments over hilltops stark

The thunder meditates in vaulted plains

It rolls in afterthought along its berth

Delivering the tune of sudden rains

To limbs up-lifted from the patient earth

And now the dormant still-life bursts with zest

As emerald kaleidoscopes of glory surge

An ocean rushing to the azure crest

Where land and sky in one grand hymn converge

Ah spring, the harbinger of sun-filled days

We lift with nature’s voice our songs of praise

© Janet Martin