le printemps

today feels a little like spring. there is a thaw in the air. one of my students came to class in flip flops. there are new smells in the air, smells that give a glimmer of sunshine to come, of flowers that are just now starting to stir in the tips of trees and bushes all around. i can't wait. today i bought tickets to france for spring break. still crossing my fingers this trip works out between visas and herding teens, etc. and then there is this poem, the first one in the second volume of collected works by mary oliver that someone just gave me. i love it.

North Country

by Mary Oliver

In the north country now it is spring and there

is a certain celebration. The thrush

has come home. He is shy and likes the

evening best, also the hour just before

morning; in that blue and gritty light he

climbs to his branch, or smoothly

sails there. It is okay to know only

one song if it is this one. Hear it

rise and fall; the very elements of your soul

shiver nicely. What would spring be

without it? Mostly frogs. But don't worry, he

arrives, year after year, humble and obedient

and gorgeous. You listen and you know

you could live a better life than you do, be

softer, kinder. And maybe this year you will

be able to do it. Hear how his voice

rises and falls. There is no way to be

sufficiently grateful for the gifts we are

given, no way to speak the Lord's name

often enough, though we do try, and

especially now, as that dappled breast

breathes in the pines and heaven's

windows in the north country, now spring has come,

are opened wide.