Another Spring

Another April is almost upon us.  I have always looked forward to its coming, its showers sweet, its promise of spring—only to be disappointed all too often by its refusal to let go of winter.  I wonder which we will get this year, the beautiful warm month of soft showers, or the cruel bringer of winter’s final ravages.

Poetry is one means I use to express my anticipation of April, sometimes optimistic, full of hope, and other times doubtful and despairing.  And I find the Japanese haiku form especially appropriate—three lines of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively—to convey this conflicted state of mind.

Here are five haiku dealing with April, each with a picture in harmony with my outlook.  I leave it to you, the reader, to decide which of my moods is being conveyed by each—

peekaboo

sun plays peekaboo,
dancing ‘cross the wint’ry lake—
heralding the spring

teasing

april is cruel—
so the poet says—teasing
us falsely with spring

spring

joining in our walk,
tentatively, yet warmly—
sweet spring has returned

april fool

april can’t fool me,
that false harbinger of spring—
may is the gateway

in the rain

dancing in the rain,
neither of us wet or cold—
warmly wrapped in love

May the spring blossom anew for all of us…..in April, or whenever it arrives!

_{© J. Bradley Burt 2022}