Crocus in bloom, Sox back at Fenway, mittens packed away.

Dear friends, Spring is on her way to New England,

and not a moment too soon.

Before a Departure in Spring 

    – W.S. Merwin

Once more it is April with the first light sifting

through the young leaves heavy with dew making the colors

remember who they are the new pink of the cinnamon tree

the gilded lichens of the bamboo the shadowed bronze

of the kamani and the blue day opening

as the sunlight descends through it all like the return

of a spirit touching without touch and unable

to believe it is here and here again and awake

reaching out in silence into the cool breath

of the garden just risen from darkness and days of rain

it is only a moment the birds fly through it calling

to each other and are gone with their few notes and the flash

of their flight that had vanished before ever we knew it

we watch without touching any of it and we

can tell ourselves only that this is April this is the morning

this never happened before and we both remember it