calendar

Essence of spring drifts from the sticky buds,
Robin’s lively lilt now wakes me early.
Under the clouds, crocuses clutch a tight bouquet.
Humming lawnmowers are summer’s elevator music.

Robin’s lively lilt now wakes me early,
The smell of sunscreen seeps through all my clothes.
Humming lawnmowers are summer’s elevator music.
Fruit stand has berries and apples by the box!

The smell of sunscreen seeps through all my clothes;
Your fun is over, mocks the drenching rain.
Fruit stand has pears and apples by the box:
Houses don sequins and tuxedos.

Your fun is over mocks the drenching rain.
We laugh and push each other’s cars through mounds of snow.
Houses doff sequins and tuxedos:
Naked trees stand pensive in the cold.

We laugh and push each other’s cars through mounds of snow.
Under the clouds, crocuses clutch a tight bouquet.
Naked trees stand pensive in the cold;
Essence of spring drifts from the sticky buds.

– V. Nesdoly © 2002

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"Calendar" is my poem for ‘Earth Day.’

I am not an earth worshiper. But I do love my terrestrial home. I love the beauty of nature, the place I live (on the south-western edge of Canada) and am fascinated and reassured by the cycles – of the seasons and of life – not in a new-agey way, but in a "there is a time for..." Ecclesiastes 3 way.

I used the pantoum form in ‘Calendar’ to try to show those cycles, and the way they bleed into and circle back to each other.