Spring – SALT CITY VERSE

An Etheree on the Arrival of Spring

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Laura Purdie Salas Here. Thank you, Laura, for hosting.

I love watching the season transform. I’m sure I’m not alone. So, I appreciated the Poetry Sisters inviting all of us to write a poem this month, an etheree, on their ongoing theme for 2023, of transformation.

Who are the Poetry Sister’s? Find their names Here on a post by Mary Lee Hahn.

What is the poetry form called “ethheree?” This link has the info in case you aren’t familiar or you’d like a review.

Winter rallied, like a dying diva at the end of an opera, and re-established it’s hold on Central New York this week with the recent nor’easter storm on 3/14/23.

Central New York, outside my door 3/14/23, quiet and still.

But spring IS coming, because it’s what happens slowly in March in Central New York.

The day following the storm, March 15, winter seemed to be tip-toeing away as if it could escape notice.

March 15, 2023, the sound of dripping trees outside.

TODAY, MARCH 15 

Change
happened,
winter-paced,
slow as hedgehogs.
Wind coaxed snow off trees.
Ice melted in sunlight.
I saw daffodils rally
deep in soil beneath last year’s leaves, 
(in my mind's eye, from experience)
to conjure yellow blossoms, about now. 

© Janice Scully 2023

The change of season and nature is a popular topic for poets, as one would expect. I opened THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS and discovered this short lovely poem.

LOCUST TREE IN FLOWER
By William Carlos Williams 1935

Among
of
green

stiff
old
bright

broken
branch 
come

white 
sweet
May

again.

I think the word “again” at the end adds great impact. It does, it seems, because it underlies the miracle of the natural cycles here on earth. Spring happens again and again. The old and stiff branch bears flowers again.

Thank you for hosting, Laura Purdie Salas. Happy Spring!

Spring Haiku and a Touch of History

Welcome to Poetry Friday, hosted today at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. Thank you, Jama for hosting! Stop by and see what she has in store for us!

Spring is coming to Central New York and below are two haiku inspired by this amazing season. I love the magic of early spring, who doesn’t? I love when trees come to life, before they are even full enough to cast shade. I think we can use all the beauty we can find, and these images are small bits.

And Another:

I rarely have enough flowers outside to cut and bring indoors, but this spring the daffodils seemed to explode. So I picked some. I love how they arrange themselves as they lean together in a glass.

Now for some history in the midst of National Poetry Month. As you might know, I live just outside of Syracuse, New York and have always been fascinated by “Salt City” history. During the 19th Century, Syracuse was the main suppler of salt for much of the United States. It supplied the Union Army during the Civil War. Commerce was aided, of course by the Erie Canal, which was funded, to a large extent by Syracuse Salt.

Though parts of the canal still exists outside the city, the canal seen here has been filled in to become Erie Boulevard. Many think it would have been amazing if that part of the canal still existed.

SALT CITY ON THE ERIE CANAL 
 
 A boat bumps up to a dock
 with the thud of ropes 
 

 and gritty canal water
 slaps the wooden sides and shakes
 

 sleeping passengers.
 They’ve arrived in Syracuse,
 

 at the bustling era 
 of Syracuse Salt,
 

 before the railroads took over,
 before midwest mines
 

 stole all their business,
 before the canal was filled in with dirt
 

 and Model T Fords replaced 
 canal boats. 

© Janice Scully 2021

Be sure to check out what Jama has for us and may spring bring at least a few peaceful moments to us all. Thank you, Jama.

Fits and Starts of Spring

It’s Poetry Friday! Thank you Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone for hosting. Stop by and when you do, check out her photographs of birds and much more on her previous post as well. They are quite beautiful.

I have two poems to share today, but just as I was searching for another poet’s work to spice up my post I received this card from a second grade student named Andrew from the Poetry Project in Happy Valley, Oregon. It made my day that had included a brief local power outage while I was about to put bread in my electric oven. Anyway, all that resolved and I can’t wait to share Andrew’s poem! Was it a coincidence that my husband and I had pizza for dinner?

Spring is coming to Syracuse, N.Y. in fits and starts. My forsythias this morning were blanketed overnight:

Change of course is the only thing we can depend on. It comes no matter what, and is determined as a main character, in a middle grade novel. Strong and persistent.

In many things, there is no clean break with what came before. Think seasons, kids growing up and adults aging. Change reveals our humble place on the planet, our part in something bigger.

The seasons here in Syracuse change like the flow of cold molasses. Seasons moves forward as if ambivalent. Spring to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter, and winter to spring takes weeks, even months.

So, with all the time I now suddenly have on my hands, I’ve been watching closely out my window and on long walks, spring approaching with its fits and starts, stepping forward and then backward. Below is a tanka and a short free verse poem inspired by this week’s weather.

SPRING CAUTION 

Trees wear snow today,
coating limbs way past elbows,
halting the lilacs.
I suspect spring was frightened
by yesterday's hyacinths. 

© Janice Scully 2020

And another inspired by a sideways windy day this week:

WINDY TUESDAY

The wind ebbed
and flowed through the trees
like a witch
with lips pursed blowing,
cheeks big as balloons
starting and stopping,
unsure if she 
wanted company or
to scare everyone away.

© Janice Scully 2020

I hope everyone is enjoying the amazing progressive poem organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections of the Teche. It’s been really interesting to see the choices the poets are making. Thank you, Molly, for hosting Poetry Friday this week!