Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ April



LIVE GIRAFFE CAM: April the Giraffe ready to give birth
HARPURSVILLE, N.Y.
April the Giraffe is  . . . ready to give birth at any moment! 
❤ ❤ ❤



“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” 


"The first of April is the day we remember what 
we are the other 364 days of the year."
 ― Mark Twain


“April is the cruelest month, breeding
lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
memory and desire, stirring
dull roots with spring rain.”


A Year on Planet Earth (4 Seasons)



Midweek Motif ~ April


Where I live in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is arriving in bulbs and budding trees, somewhat less abundant due to late frost.  Where Poets United's Rosemary lives, Fall approaches with lots and lots of rain.  Thanks to Rosemary, I include two April poems from Australia.

I always look forward to April!

❤ ❤ ❤


Your Challenge:  Write a new poem capturing the details of an outdoor scene or day in April.  

April flowers: Daisy and Sweet Pea


by Sara Teasdale

The roofs are shining from the rain.
The sparrows tritter as they fly,
And with a windy April grace
The little clouds go by.

Yet the back-yards are bare and brown
With only one unchanging tree--
I could not be so sure of Spring
Save that it sings in me. 





APRIL this year, not otherwise
Than April of a year ago
Is full of whispers, full of sighs,
Dazzling mud and dingy snow;
Hepaticas that pleased you so
Are here again, and butterflies.

There rings a hammering all day,
And shingles lie about the doors;
From orchards near and far away
The gray wood-pecker taps and bores,
And men are merry at their chores,
And children earnest at their play.

The larger streams run still and deep;
Noisy and swift the small brooks run.
Among the mullein stalks the sheep
Go up the hillside in the sun
Pensively; only you are gone,

You that alone I cared to keep. 

Autumn leaves observed in Centennial Park, Sydney.



April Rains
     by Allan Lake

Somewhere a small flood gate opens:
Rainstorm as a goddess
sings Garden in the Rain.
I lose tears throughout,
unable to dam the flow.

This is new, like those flowers
just outside my window,
not the ones near the door
that have given their best.
Their time, my time, the season.

Full moon last night,
its twin on the still lake.
We walked in silence knowing
what we were walking towards
but going forward because
that's all we can do
while walking hand in hand 
or alone.

Winter warms to spring;
summer sighs into autumn,
alias fall. I fell, as was my fate.
Mist, mushrooms, musts happen.
A petal, a leaf, a belief –
hosts of smallish wonders
bloom and pass and possibly
circle round again,
nudging the journey
of every sentient spore.

1st published in Poetry Matters 2016, then Poetica Christi Anthology 2017.

Used with permission of the poet. 


The Small Poem in Autumn

     © Rosemary Nissen 1990

The small poem of green leaves
and yellow leaves and red leaves
and green leaves turning yellow
and red leaves turning brown.

The small poem of green grass
and grey grass and silver grass
and black grass under shadow
and grasses beige and fawn.

The poem of the magpie’s song
rippling and gurgling in eloquent bursts
between perfect intervals of silence
each finished phrase a variation
extending the one before.

The small poem notes these down
in a half hour between sleep and work
before the clouds change and the sun moves
and the grey grass turns deep brown
and the magpie stops and leaves fall.


from Small Poems of April, Abalone Press (Three Bridges, Vic.) 1990
Used with the poet’s permission.
❤❤❤

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—               
                       (Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Books )


42 comments:

  1. Thanks for the prompt. I could write poems about April forever (even though it can sometimes be a cruel month). So many of my friends were born in April!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I know. I've got to look at the 2nd poem.

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  2. Thank you for another midweek jolt - i was singing Simon and Garfunkel (not out loud) April..come she will - once again sorry if I can't get back to your posts..

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    Replies
    1. One of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs, Jae!

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    2. Me, too. Just keep showing up, Jae Rose.

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  3. April is a lovely month in both hemispheres and an apt prompt
    being also the month of poetry. I have mistakenly made a double entry. I wonder if you could delete the first. Thank you Susan.

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  4. I think that Video is just awesome. And, 'April'
    by Sara Teasdale, speaks to me on a personal note, for although were are a 'summery' climate all year round, this year our dry Season is riddled with Sahara Dust and mounds and mounds of dried leaves, even though our flowering Poui are brightening the mountains and skyline scenery.

    A Happy Wednesday to all

    much love...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback! I couldn't resist the video, thou it isn't perfectly aligned. And I hear you about the dust.

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  5. Hello, everyone, my busy time is almost over and I am happy to return this week, bringing you a poem about warring Southern and Northern Aprils...

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  6. Am hoping, that the possible snowfall forecast for this week, marks the end of winter, in southern Ontario. As we ramp up, for road construction season and then summer. Sigh.

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  7. April has afflicted me with Spring fever. Hope everyone has a wonderful season.
    (Enjoyed Rosemary's beautiful poem.)

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  8. My April today is a naughty child :)
    Thank you Susan :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to send it to my nephew and niece i-l who are experiencing the same.

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  9. I love the spring and this year at home (Cali) the wildflowers are blooming. It's been years since we have seen green.
    Im writing about the Acholi in No. Uganda this month - today is spring fever day so Dance!!!

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    Replies
    1. Dancing. Aha! I wondered if it was a special occasion.

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  10. What a feast it is in here today! The film is gorgeous and the poems wonderful. My favourite is Rosemary's! Here the rain has stopped, the sun is beckoning. I will go out into the April day and report back later. Smiles. Right now I can hear hummingbirds twittering and chirping at the feeder.

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    Replies
    1. Wow, Sherry! You have come alive!

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    2. Thank you kindly, especially considering the good company I'm in here!

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  11. Hi everybody. Sorry I goofed with wrong URL on my first post. I don't know how to delete it. Mea Culpa! It's overcast in my world with prediction of storms and (gulp) possible snow. It seems we had Spring in Winter, and now we're having Winter in Spring. It leaves one a bit unsettled!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I commented before I saw this note! SO sorry. I really enjoyed the poem though, so i'm glad I read it. I'll remove it in a little while.

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  12. Greetings, Susan and fellow Poets,

    Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've moved continents, again, and am back on the island. This makes me wonder, indeed, how different April is regarding the bigger picture, i.e., the hemispheres. In any case, spring and fall, for me, are the most beautiful, since they are not as cold or hot, but milder, more humble in their beautiful presence.

    Thanks for the prompt, Susan. I enjoyed writing this one.

    Wishing everyone a wonderful Wednesday,
    Poppy

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    1. Oh! Almost forgot: will visit with everyone tomorrow, as it's midnight, here in the Med!

      'Night.

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    2. Wonderful to see you, Poppy! Yay!

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    3. Thanks, Sherry and Susan!

      :)

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  13. Jamz--I can't figure out how to leave a comment at your blog!

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    Replies
    1. Somehow he manages to use facebook...at least that is how my comments appear.

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  14. I really like this prompt, Susan.

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  15. I was felled by an attack of fatigue, kids, but made the rounds. Tomorrow is another day and hopefully I can write something in the morning.

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    1. Just popped over to your page, Sherry, excited to read what about April in your neck of the woods. Will check back again, later.

      Poppy:)

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    2. Poppy, I have moved back to Tofino, where I had for so long longed to be, and it is very wonderful. I am eager to hear about your big move as well, back to Greece. How wonderful!

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  16. Thanks for using my poem, and to those who remarked on it. Ah, that was a very different April than the one I'm experiencing now. Back in 1990 I was living in south-eastern Australia, where Allan Lake still lives. Autumn is particularly beautiful there. This April, the whole of the north-eastern cost has had wild weather – a cyclone, phenomenal rains and much flooding. Also I have caught a cold with the change of season. AND I have visitors for a few days, who now live elsewhere but still had stuff in a storage unit here, which flooded, so they had to come and check on the damage. All of which is my wonderful excuse for saying I probably won't manage an April poem this week, so maybe the one chosen above can do duty for it.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Oh, and let me add – many thanks for paying attention to the Southern Hemisphere too, which is so often overlooked in discussions of weather and seasons! (We don't even call it Fall here, as only the introduced trees shed their leaves. All our natives are evergreen.)

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    2. And then, suiddenly it was an old friend's birthday, and I did have an April poem after all!

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  17. Hello everyone!
    I'm new around here, but I've already found some familiar faces as I browsed around. So, if you don't mind having me here:-), I'll be participating in Midweek Motif.
    Thank you all, and looking forward to reading you. Khaya

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wow...so lovely to see you here Khaya...it's wonderful to have you among us @ Poets United...

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