Not yet sprung! Waiting for the Big Bang!

Do I have your attention? 

Spring? Seduction by color, shape, sound, fragrance? Crocuses? Tulips? Dogwood? The riotous scream of YELLOW shooting from the forsythia, followed by the reds, oranges, and pinks of tulips? Whatever happened to “in like a lion and out like a lamb?”  We got the lion coming and going! So I say: “Let’s Go! Wake up! Alright already!”

I realize that others are already smelling the sweet earth and getting the color sensors in their brains firing, but here in the Northeast we’re still recovering from the ravages of Riley (several feet of snow), Quinn (Bombogenesis), Skylar (snow and gale force winds) and Toby (okay…that really dumped on DC and NYC and we got spared the worst here in the Boston area…but still!)

There are those in indigenous traditions who are so attuned to nature that they really can invoke the rain with a rain dance. While I am not endowed with that gift, I thought some photos and poems might coax the spring from the jaws of winter and wake up the bulbs sleeping underground. We’re really ready here to tweak the temperature from the 30’s into the 50’s maybe? Sigh.

When Harold was deeply ensconced in his love affair with flowers (which really was much of his life), he would get up in the middle of the night and write poems to them. He called this series “A Garden of Psalms“, and he did have several exhibitions which included these poems together with the flowers.

Several years ago, I made a book of these for my niece, Sarah Kotkowski, who was joined at the hip with dear Harold, and it allowed me to take the next step in what had been a passion project of his. Perhaps a published book is in our future, but for now, a few offerings to the Goddess of Spring, from the land of the too-long-winter. If you have your own ideas for jump starting the warmth, the color, the birdsong — all ideas are welcome! Here’s to hands in the dirt and an explosion of sensory seduction!

“When you told me about the night
and the crown of glory

When you told me to quiet my soul
and sparkle

When you told me not to worry,
I saw you.”