Primo Vere - Spring Comes

Spring comes
Quietly--
Not with the bleating of lambs or
The tweeting of birds or the
Beating of butterfly wings

Spring comes
Silently--
Celtic through the Neolithic stones,
Unheralded by peering shadow-seekers
Rummaging around on the Second of
February, and unannounced by a
Banner on the front page of the
National Enquirer…

Unpresaged by pregnant April 
Showers,
Spring comes--

Alive


Nota bene: This is one of the few pieces of juvenilia I have preserved.  It was written when I was at college (the University of Florida), in 1979, when I was in the English Department High Honors Seminar.  We had an assignment to write a poem about Spring, but to try not to fall into the usual cliches. I thought it might be fun to mention some of those cliches ironically.  We had one-on-one tutorials with a number of well-known novelists and poets; one of mine was with the poet Richard Eberhart.  He told me he liked this poem and that it was a good one, so I have kept it these four decades.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2017

Poem

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George   Avatar
January 12, 2018 at 11:34 AM
BEAUTIFUL! MANY CONGRATS ON YOUR WIN, JOHN.
Gauthier Avatar
January 10, 2018 at 1:15 PM
Marvelous. Congrats on your win, John.
S     Avatar
January 10, 2018 at 10:06 AM
A beautifully written verse! Congratulations on your win John!! ~Judy
Barden Avatar
January 10, 2018 at 5:39 AM
This is beautiful, George - congratulations on your win, my friend! :-)
Pigeon Tart Avatar
December 31, 2017 at 11:38 AM
Gorgeous!
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