Spring

For Everything There Is a Season

It is time!

It is time for turning,
for leaning,
time for dancing,
time for climbing trees
and for spinning
in circles,
for turning your face
to the sky.

The puddles are full
to their brims. The birds
know it is time;
they sing in the
morning to turn
turn turn
the seasons
round to some
new purpose.

Don't you know?
Or are you too buried
in the bookish wool
of winter to
hear them
turning
their songs over
on themselves
like cartwheels?

Close your books,
just now. It is
time to stop
the click-clack
of brain with
words
with
work
and put on
rubber boots
and turn
(turn!)
the time
to now.

-------------------------------------

I dropped a class this spring. Not because it was too hard, or not interesting (it was wonderful) but because I needed soul time. It was one of the best ideas I've had. I'm trying to learn the art of quitting, of giving myself permission to not do everything, to not fill my time and my space with to-dos. Since I dropped that class I've started writing again, and not just because I have more time, but also because I have the spiritual energy to make poetry possible.