If Spring Had a Color...then yellow, it must be

It's the end of April, and Spring has come at last. Not the false spring of February, or the teasing spring of March, but finally, the true Spring! I'm celebrating with an original poem inspired by that most springy of colors: yellow. All of the photos are ones that I took in my own backyard (with the exception of the forsythia and Carolina jasmine which I let slip past my camera lens this year—those are from the royalty-free Pixabay site, bless 'em.)

 Spring Yellow/Yellow Spring

by Kathryn Louise Wood

If Spring had a color,

then yellow, it must be.

Buttercups, and daffodils,

and Carolina jasmine,

forsythia, and dandelions,

and yellow powdered pollen.

It's as though the flowers,

 and their magical dust—

                       

 collected by the bees,

 and spread from bloom to bloom—

 encourage the young sun

  to linger, ever longer,

  until the old world dances

  in the golden youth of Spring.

Thanks for stopping by. Y'all come back now. (And Happy Spring!)

Kate

March Forth!...in shades of yellow

"Mama's Daffodil" photo by KLWood

If the month of March were a color, it would surely be yellow. Fresh new flowers burst forth in buttery lemon shades to encourage the golden sun on its journey toward the vernal equinox and beyond. Mirroring the sun are daffodils, dandelions, forsythia, and my personal favorite—buttercups.

"Buttercup Cottage" photo by KLWood

When we first found our home here in Edenton, North Carolina, it was in the month of March, with yellow swaths of gently gleaming buttercups swaying in the soft breezes of the Albemarle Sound. We were both smitten by the charm of this little, two-story Victorian-era cottage,

"Buttercups" by Manfred Richter- Pixabay  

surrounded by those diminutive botanical dancers, and promptly named it “Buttercup Cottage.”

Emily Dickinson welcomed March in her poem “Dear March—Come in." Here is the 

first stanza for your Spring reading pleasure:

How glad I am -

"Forsythia" by  KIMDAEJEUNG- Pixabay

I hoped for you before -

Put down your Hat -

You must have walked -

How out of Breath you are -

Dear March, how are you, and the Rest -

Did you leave Nature well -

Oh March, Come right upstairs with me -

I have so much to tell -

So, my dear reader, slip on your 

yellow sweater, don your yellow 

cap, or if there's rain, pull on 

"Dandelion" by Holi Ho- Pixabay

your yellow slicker, and 

March Forth to welcome 

the Sun-King of Spring

and his court of dancing yellow

blossoms!

Thanks for stopping by...

y’all come back, now!
Kate

"At Our Buttercup Cottage" photo by author's mother, Oleta Wood

March Forth!...with a Spring in your step

If the month of March was a color, surely it would be yellow. The yellow of breezy, blowing boughs

"March Forsythia" photo by KLWood

of forsythia, the yellow of nodding, trumpeting daffodils, the yellow of the ever boldening sun, racing toward its Vernal Equinox and then onward in its steady pace of lengthening light.

If March had a slogan, it would be “March Forth!” March forth into the greening of the year. March forth, high-stepping across puddles and patches of itinerant ice. March forth with the power of the March wind to your back.

If March had a Facebook page on which it noted its “Relationship” status, I’m certain it would choose, “It’s Complicated.” One day stormy, one day calm. One day frigid, one day warm. One day clinging to winter, one day plunging into spring. Mercurial, thy name is March.

John Philip Sousa, Nov 6, 1854-MARCH 6, 1932

If March was music it would, of course, be composed by the “March King,” John Philip Sousa. Proud, loud, and infectious, spurring us to put down our laptops and smartphones, and march around the kitchen table, banging our pot lids and beating our spoons, heads high, smiles wide. 

If March was a Bible verse, it might be, “And the lion shall lie down with the lamb.” After all, we’ve

all heard the saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb,” right? True enough, except there are no lions lying down with lambs in the Bible. Not directly, anyway. This is one of the many misquoted/misremembered verses of the Good Book. Isaiah 11:6, “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Thus endeth our Bible Study lesson for the day.

If March was a mathematical symbol, it would be Pi. Pi the irrational, Pi the infinite possibility, Pi the unpredictable. Perhaps that is why March 14, is National Pi Day! I don’t know about you, but I’m going to bake an Apple “Pi” on the 14th, complete with a Pi symbol-shaped steam vent in the top crust.

"Running European Hare" photo by Malene Thyssen per Wikimedia Commons

If March was an animal, it would be the March Hare. Heard the English idiom, “Mad as a March Hare”?  (Remember Alice in Wonderland?) Seems European hares mate primarily during the month of March and go just a wee bit crazy in the process, jumping straight up into the air for no apparent reason, boxing with each other, darting around erratically. Of course, basketball fans may recognize this as “March Madness,” but that’s another whole genus of animal altogether.

If March was a poem, it would be by William Wordsworth. (Oh, what a wonderful name for a man so full of worthy words!) In his, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” its first verse proclaims:

“I wandered lonely as a cloud 

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 

When all at once I saw a crowd, 

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

"Mama's Daffodil, 2018" by KL Wood

God bless you, March. You boisterous, bodacious, blustery, marvel of a month. And in this year, of 2018, you are heralded with full moons bookending your first and final days. By the almanac they may be called the Worm Moon and the Blue Moon, but for me they are the Lion Moon and the Lamb Moon. That bridge, spanning the seasonal chasm of winter to spring. Not a month to just “get through,” but one on which to stand high and look around, feeling the March wind blow the cobwebs away!

Thanks for stopping by...y'all come back, now!

Kate