My weather-related desires

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Admittedly, we don't spend much time thinking about St. Patrick's Day here in England, rather unlike the Americans and, of course, the Irish. But the day is still something to look forward to because it arrives at the tail-end of winter, when spring begins to surface.

Although, that doesn't seem to be happening this year.

One of the year's events I look forward to the most is the hatching of daffodils. They should be out by now, but instead the unseasonably freezing weather is keeping them inside their buds. And now, as I type, it's snowing heavily outside and coating any spring colour in a disagreeable blanket of white.

Still, one of the advantages of being a writer is the ability to create the world you wish to see.

This is something I took advantage of for my latest university assignment, for which we were asked to construct a poem. After a few experiments using different subjects, I found the perfect source of inspiration: my back garden and the craving for more colourful ground. My poem was also somewhat inspired by Valerie Bloom's Two Seasons.

I ended up receiving my best university grade yet; something I'm very proud of because I never thought I'd be able to write decent poetry! And now I feel it's the right time to share some of my own work here.

So, here's the poem. Hope you enjoy!

Sun and Garden

Sunlight frames the garden’s grassy

chest, as shadows paint a kaleidoscope

of bare limbs horizontally,

amongst tumbled leaves of summer’s hope.

Hope that leaves during winter’s stay,

emeralds emaciated and withered,

skeletal limbs begging the sky

and craving warmth that hasn’t dared

stretch past seasonal dictation.

The sun feels silenced and beaten.

For five months, plastic windmills spin

orange and red amongst biting breeze,

garden’s only incline within. 

But, yellow heads soon peer over leaves,

march upward slowly, hope carried

in every surprising spurt, and mouth

eventually appears, opened

wide. The stout sun recognises how

much it resembles this flower,

and beams because it is beating winter’s power.

Now reborn with resolute might,

branching buds join the awakening

prosperously in pink and white

décor for cherry trees. Heartening

lavender’s calm scent embraces

the gentle atmosphere, and jazzy 

sparrows sing and sway in graces,

for sake of courtship’s clear revelry.

So, it appears to a once defeated sun:

cold is vanishing, spring has come.

As pageants grow over garden,

cherry’s blossom fades, but emeralds

become replenished where fallen

limbs begged in frost. Roses are abled

back to point, standing firmer

with defensive warmth, daring insects

closer using crimson glamour.

And thus, as sun and garden collect

for high solstice, life in full merriment,

summer bustles earnest and elegant.

A year in Jamaica

Earlier tonight, I was doing some university work and came across a truly enchanting recording of the poem Two Seasons by Valerie Bloom, which I really had to share. Bloom is Jamaican, and writes a lot of her work in Jamaican dialect, such as this poem. I just love listening to the exotic sound as she describes the feel of the climate and its effect on nature – perhaps the perfect escape for those of us who are tethered knee deep in winter cold!

Here are the first two verses:

We don' have a Springtime like some folk
Who live in dem colder place,
but we have a time when de soft rain come,
an' tease open de seedcase
o' de poincianna and de trumpet tree,
An' whisper to de young cane to wake
when de guangu blossom is pink an' white
powder-puff, prettying up de earth face.
But not like Spring in dem colder place.

We have no Summer when Springtime done
no change o' season as such,
but we have a time when de asphalt bubble
in de hot sun, when yuh dare not touch
de tarmac wid yuh barefoot; when de heat is
a dancin' dervice who wi' grab yuh
an' spin yuh till de sweat is a river flowin' down,
an' yuh too tired fe de anything much.
But we don' have a summer as such.

If you want to read the whole poem, it's available at The Poetry Archive. There's also a recording of it there, too, if you want to listen at the same time (which I highly recommend!)