Suddenly Springtime

Maybe that’s why they call it “Spring?” Some years it crashes in on us. Suddenly it’s there and winter is only an unpleasant memory. This has become a “suddenly” year in Georgia, here on the Piedmont. This winter was a bitter one; not all that desperate but cold enough and for too long. Then, sudden warm breezes and blooms. Spring is most welcome, thank you.

There have been other years, when winter dragged on and on, and no amount of wishing would bring the springtime. My second year at Oak Ridge National Lab when I floundered because couldn’t do anything right, that was certainly one of them. I wished for green, wanted to photograph green, anything. Tennessee winter hung on. Then, that spring my daughter was born.

Some of us will remember the winter of 1942, when we were all uneasy, wondering what would happen to us. The War. The news was bad, vague, battles in places unheard of. I sat in Miss Hayes literature class and stared out the window at dreary winter. Eternally gray. And she caught me.

I failed to memorize the poem, “Ode to a Skylark.” Miss Hayes, a frustrated thespian, sentenced me to stay after school. My friend Charlie Saunders told me, “Ashton, just ask her to help you with it. She won’t keep you very long.” Wisdom from experience. I’ve never appreciated Shelly.

From that literature class, however, I do remember one line from some forgotten, nameless poem:

“Let us whirl with the golden spoke-wheels of the sun.”

Somehow it summed up my hopes for that winter, that soon the tedious winter must give way to springtime, that all would be well. What might be the source of that line? I wish I could bring back that poem, recited so forcefully by Miss Hayes. Could it be some distorted translation of Omar Khayam? To my mind, that one line has come to stand for the hope of Spring's rebirth.

And now it’s finally here. Join me; let’s glory in it. Don’t let it slip away!

Dac Crossley
April 2, 2014

“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.” – Jack London.

Comments

[Marja McGraw]

I'm in No. Arizona, and we've had several warm days already. I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to have heat this summer like other states had cold this winter.

Your posts always energize me, Dac. Thank you!

[J. R. Lindermuth]

Here in Pennsylvania we're still anticipating spring. Thought it was here, then it snow again on Monday. Still, I'm hopeful it's on the way.

[Billie H. Wilson]

Dac, you are a writer I enjoy. Trouble with your blog, I spend too much time re-reading, and your quotations, I need to absorb. Good luck with your "re-invention."

Billie W.

[Janice Pulliam]

We are ready for spring here, too, in southeastern Arizona. The mesquites in lower places are leafing out in spring green, but those on the colder hilltops are only starting the process. When you're up on a rise, you can trace the path of Sonoita Creek by the green of the Cottonwood trees threading through the brown landscape. Ocotillos have already sent up their red flags of victory---the victory of wet, warm, life, and spring over dry, cold, dead winter. Hooray!