Of sweet showers and the prospect
Of May flowers. White ghosts of lilacs
Preserving memories of poets past. At last,
The comfort of winter is here,
Soothing thorns weary with waiting,
The burden of preparation laid by.
The eye, bruised with anticipation
Softened, gauzed, swathed. Bathed
Now in gentle whiteness. It will come
Soon enough, spring, with its
Brightness, its roses, its demands
On the senses. For now, April snow
Dispenses with the pressure to grow,
Proceed, be productive, know. It
Blankets the rose bush, hushing,
Melting hands on bare temples,
Asking nothing
In its silence.
I really like the shift in perspective with this one, Giti, especially with the reference to lilacs and past poets. Such a dignified calm about it. Thank you and Happy Easter.
ReplyDeleteHappy easter to you too, Bhaswati (I am mostly grateful for the extra holidays :D ) and yes, I have been thinking of this for a few winters now. How we miss the resilience, the calm, the lessons of winter because we are so focused on spring.
DeleteHappy Easter, Giti! Something I admire so much in this poem as well as the last one is the way in which you embed your rhymes within the lines rather than perching them on the ends. The language almost (but not quite) distracts me from the vivid pictures you paint, but I'm not complaining either way!
ReplyDeletehappy easter to you too, Sameer, and once again - thank you for noticing! I do try to do this because i love rhyme and rhythm in poetry and it is actually hard to not plonk the rhyme at the end which somehow diminishes the effect rather than enhances it for me.
DeleteThat reminds me of what Agha Shahid Ali said about the ghazal being (paraphrasing here) a form that allows people to reclaim the rhyme from the embarrassment of cliche since the conventions of qaafiya and radeef tuck it further into the line.
DeleteHappy Easter! This did turn it around for me - focussing on winter instead of rushing into Spring.
ReplyDeleteAnd to you too, Geethanjali :) Its taken me a couple of years but i am increasingly respectful of the strengths of winter.
DeleteThis is the most difficult time for me, a gardner waiting to get to work, so thank you for this different perspective.
ReplyDeleteGitanjali I am a mostly failed but still wannabe plant nurturer! I envy you your gardenerhood ♥️
ReplyDelete