April is Poetry Month

We don’t have National Poetry Month in the UK, I believe it belongs to the US alone. But I am going to start the campaign for worldwide poetry domination soon. This post felt a little self indulgent, but forget my name for a moment and just enjoy. By the end of my little session I actually felt quite buoyed up. I hope you do too. Enjoy National Poetry Month American subscribers and for those of us in the rest of the world… time to join the campaign!

In April

by James Hearst

This I saw on an April day:
Warm rain spilt from a sun-lined cloud,
A sky-flung wave of gold at evening,
And a cock pheasant treading a dusty path
Shy and proud.


And this I found in an April field:
A new white calf in the sun at noon,
A flash of blue in a cool moss bank,
And tips of tulips promising flowers
To a blue-winged loon.


And this I tried to understand
As I scrubbed the rust from my brightening plow:
The movement of seed in furrowed earth,
And a blackbird whistling sweet and clear
From a green-sprayed bough.

James Hearst (August 8, 1900 - July 27, 1983), born James Schell Hearst, was an American poet, philosopher, and university professor, who was sometimes described as the "Robert Frost of the Midwest" (source)

From Our Evening Fireside Now (extract)

by Emily Bronte

From our evening fireside now,
Merry laugh and cheerful tone,
Smiling eye and cloudless brow,
Mirth and music, all are flown;

Yet the grass before the door
Grows as green in April rain;
And as blithely as of yore
Larks have poured their day-long strain.

Is it fear or is it sorrow
Checks the stagnant stream of joy?
Do we tremble that to-morrow
May our present peace destroy?

Skylark

Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848 was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights. (source)

April Moods by Lenore Hetrick

(Sign on the door says PLEASE DO NOT PICK THE WILD FLOWERS)

Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of her prose and hackwork verse under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. (source)

Always Marry an April Girl by Ogden Nash

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true --
I love April, I love you.

Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse, of which he wrote over 500 pieces. (source)

Yes, I really must stop running down hillsides, babbling like an idiot and chucking flowers everywhere!