May 2014

Poetry for Spring
Dear Friends,
Spring has finally sprung, and with the buds, my love for poetry is again sprouting forth. Looking out at my window at a warm and sunny morning, I want to share a poem with you about a day like today, and then invite some reflection on it. The poem comes from one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001-2003.

Today
By Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths
and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight
that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight
on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants
from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,
holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,
well, today is just that kind of day.
Source: Poetry (April 2000).

In his playful poem, Collins invites us to imagine ourselves both as liberators of a snowglobe’s inhabitants and as the inhabitants themselves, as we finally emerge into the warmer world of spring.

Though Collins is not Jewish, his instinct to notice and celebrate the world around us is reflected in the Bible, particularly in Shir Hashirim, Song of Songs. In Jewish tradition, we read the Song of Songs over Passover, celebrating the love between God and the people Israel. Listen to its spring elegy.

Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, come with me.
See! The winter is past;
the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit.
Song of songs, 2:10-2:13

This Spring, as we move through God’s world and witness the miraculous rebirth of the earth around us, I invite us each to take 30 seconds each day (or more, if you like) to notice what is going on outside. Spot a bird whose singing you hear. Watch how buds are opening and flowers blooming from day to day. And then – whether silently, in spoken words, or in poetry – say thank you.

Blessings,
Rabbi Margie