• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Photo Gallery
  • Contact
PRAIRIE PUNCTUATIONS

A Spring day

5/15/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
  Today was a lovely Spring day in eastern Montana.  A friend and I drove along the Yellowstone River as far as Miles City.  The company was delightful, the sky was clear, the prairies green from the recent rains, lambs in the pasture, pelicans on the river, ergo, it was a perfect day.  So with that day behind me perhaps a little poetry is in order:  James Russell Lowell
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace;
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o'errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?
Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it,
We are happy now because God wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
'Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;
We sit in the warm shade and feel right well
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
We may shut our eyes but we cannot help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near,
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by;
And if the breeze kept the good news back,
For our couriers we should not lack;
We could guess it all by yon heifer's lowing,
And hark! How clear bold chanticleer,
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing!
Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving;
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,
'Tis for the natural way of living:
Who knows whither the clouds have fled?
In the unscarred heaven they leave not wake,
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season's youth,
And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.

0 Comments

    Avis R. Anderson

    Retired public school librarian, retired ELCA pastor, lover of the prairies, "daughter of the middle border", granddaughter of Scandinavian immigrants.  Always loved to read and write.  P.S.  I don't Facebook or Twitter, but I would enjoy visiting with you at aa66bg77@gmail.com

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    1950s Life
    Advent
    Age
    Aging
    All Saints 2020
    Attitude
    Baby Boomers
    Back Roads
    Black Hills
    Blessings
    Bombs Iran
    Books
    Border Wall
    Choices
    Christmas 2017
    Christmas 2017 (2)
    Christmas 2018
    Civic Pride
    Civil Discourse
    Civil War
    Climate Change
    Clothes Lines
    Comey Hearings
    Community
    Covid 19
    Dinosaur Digs
    Diplomacy
    Douglas
    Down-sizing
    Election
    Elections
    Elie Wiesel
    Environment
    Faith Life
    Fall
    Fear
    Flood On Yellowstone
    Forgiveness
    Freedom (in Christ)
    Freedom Of The Press
    Friends
    Friendship
    Ft. Peck Montana
    Ft. Union
    Funerals
    Funeral Sermons
    Genocide
    God's Love
    Grace
    Great Basin
    Green Spaces
    Handwork
    History
    Holocaust
    Holy Spirit
    Home
    Hope 2021
    House
    Hugh Glass
    Human Relations
    Immigration
    Immigration Grandparents
    Indians
    Iowa Caucus
    July 4th 2017
    June 2020
    Justice
    Lamenting
    Library Week
    Life Questions
    Listening
    Living Today
    Living Well
    Love
    Lutefisk Style
    Makoshika 2019
    Makoshika Park
    Meditation
    Memorial Day 2017
    Mother Teresa
    Native Americans
    New
    Pandemic 2020
    Parks
    Peace
    Peace 2021
    Pentecost
    Poetry
    Politics
    Politics 2017
    Prairie Home
    Prairie Journey
    Prairies
    Process
    Prodigal Son
    Public Service
    Rain
    Ranching
    Reading
    Retirement
    River Valley
    Road Trip
    Route 66
    Rural Life
    Seasons
    Self-control
    Service
    Simple Living
    Single Life
    Small Town Life
    Soldiers
    Spirituality
    Spring
    Spring Weather
    Stav Church
    Stories
    Summer 2017
    Summer Adventures
    Summer Living
    Summertime
    Taos NM
    The Mind
    Travel
    Travel Colorado
    Travel Wyoming
    Trinity
    Trump
    Trump Politics
    Truth
    Utah
    Viewpoints
    Voting
    Walking
    Wealth
    Wind
    Winter2019February
    Winter In Baker
    Wisdom
    Wisdom Words
    Women
    Words
    Work
    Workers
    World
    World Society
    World War I
    Wyoming
    Yellowstone River
    Yellowstone River Valley
    Zennie's Travels

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Photo Gallery
  • Contact