A Rare Poem, about Spring

(While listening to Pilgrims on a Long Journey)

Bare trees, branches

cold beneath iron skies,

frost biting down on the world and me and

life

warmth is on the inside

rising

defiant

seeping up from secret depths into branches,

spilling out green buds

tightly closed protecting life inside,

growing warmer and bigger.

Iron dissolves into blue water

bowing to spring

hope is stronger than ice

green is warmer than winter

every time.