March 1st. but on the 2nd of March

drat.
missed my goal of every day posting.
drat.
missed March 1st post
i was online, full intentions to logging into this blog.
got distracted.
shiny monkeys, and all.

ugh.

ok ...

pretend this date says March 1st.

and begin:

March 1st – in like a lamb, out like a lion
or is it in like a lion, out like a lamb …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘When March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb’
goes the old folklore saying…
The reverse, however, is also true, and the saying continues:
‘When March comes in like a lamb, it goes out like a lion,’
which does not bode well for us this year.
from Times Mar 26, 2002

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘I would chuse March, for I would come in like a Lion.’
‘But you’d go out like a Lamb when you went to hanging.’
from J. Fletcher, 1625

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March … comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb.
from J. Ray English, 1670

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charming and fascinating he resolved to be.
Like March, having come in like a lion,
he purposed to go out like a lamb.
from C. Brontë Shirley, 1849

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March has come in like a lamb with a warm wind … from the South-west.
from E. Holden, 1906

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings."
- Joyce Kilmer, Spring

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The afternoon is bright,
with spring in the air,
a mild March afternoon,
with the breath of April stirring,
I am alone in the quiet patio
looking for some old untried illusion -
some shadow on the whiteness of the wall
some memory asleep
on the stone rim of the fountain,
perhaps in the air
the light swish of some trailing gown.”
- Antonio Machado, 1875-1939
Selected Poems, # 3, Translated by Alan S. Trueblood

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Each leaf,
each blade of grass
vies for attention.

Even weeds
carry tiny blossoms
to astonish us."
- Marianne Poloskey, Sunday in Spring

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The sun is brilliant in the sky but its warmth does not reach my face.
The breeze stirs the trees but leaves my hair unmoved.
The cooling rain will feed the grass but will not slake my thirst.
It is all inches away but further from me than my dreams.”
- M. Romeo LaFlamme, The First of March

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“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.”
- William Wordsworth, Daffodils

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Last day of Winter,
leafless walnut trees—
form is emptiness.

First day of Spring,
clear sky to Mt. Shasta—
emptiness is form."
- Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings: March

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!”
- Night An’Fey, Transformation of Energy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“March is the month of expectation,
The things we do not know …”

- Emily Dickinson, XLVIII

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The March wind roars
Like a lion in the sky,
And makes us shiver
As he passes by.

When winds are soft,
And the days are warm and clear,
Just like a gentle lamb,
Then spring is here."
- Author Unknown

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”
- Robin Williams

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair
The bees are stirring, birds are on the wing,
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of spring.”
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land,
nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring:
such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms
that enkindle the season they smite.”
- Algernon C. Swinburne, March: An Ode

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.”
- Anne Bradstreet

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,
I have a world apart that is not among men.”
- Li Bai

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A light exists in Spring
Not present in the year
at any other period
When March is scarcely here.”
- Emily Dickinson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
- Hal Borland

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer
in the light, and winter in the shade.”
- Charles Dickens

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It was cold and windy, scarcely the day
to take a walk on that long beach
Everything was withdrawn as far as possible,
indrawn: the tide far out, the ocean shrunken,
seabirds in ones or twos.
The rackety, icy, offshore wind
numbed our faces on one side;
disrupted the formation
of a lone flight of Canada geese;
and blew back the low, inaudible rollers
in upright, steely mist.”
- Elizabeth Bishop, The End of March

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
Albert Einstein

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.”
Henry David Thoreau

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”
Abraham Lincoln

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ahh, the wide almond groves in full white flower
Stunning in the morning sun.
Old naked Winter in his garb of grays and browns has run.
Forsythia blooms come and go in the blink of a yellow Eye,
Then, suddenly, mysteriously, Green erupts; and we sigh.”
- Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The spring is coming by a many signs;
The trays are up, the hedges broken down
That fenced the haystack, and the remnant shines
Like some old antique fragment weathered brown.
And where suns peep, in every sheltered place,
The little early buttercups unfold
A glittering star or two – till many trace
The edges of the blackthorn clumps in gold.
And then a little lamb bolts up behind
The hill, and wags his tail to meet the yoe;
And then another, sheltered from the wind,
Lies all his length as dead – and lets me go
Close by, and never stirs, but basking lies,
With legs stretched out as though he could not rise.”
- John Clare, Young Lambs

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The sun is hotter than the top ledge in a steam bath;
The ravine, crazed, is rampaging below.
Spring – that corn-fed, husky milkmaid -
Is busy at her chores with never a letup.

The snow is wasting (pernicious anemia -
See those branching veinlets of impotent blue?)
Yet in the cowbarn life is burbling, steaming,
And the tines of pitchforks simply glow with health.

These days – these days, and these nights also!
With eavesdrop thrumming its tattoos at noon,
With icicles (cachectic!) hanging on to gables,
And with the chattering of rills that never sleep!

All doors are flung open – in stable and in cowbarn;
Pigeons peck at oats fallen in the snow;
And the culprit of all this and its life-begetter-
The pile of manure – is pungent with ozone."
- Boris Pasternak, March

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.”
- Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Green Things Growing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The last fling of winter is over … The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it. It is warm
now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.”
- Donald Culross Peattie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn.”
- Lewis Grizzard, Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Gone were but the Winter,
Come were but the Spring,
I would go to a covert
Where the birds sing;

Where in the whitethorn
Singeth a thrush,
And a robin sings
In the holly-bush.

Full of fresh scents
Are the budding boughs
Arching high over
A cool green house:

Full of sweet scents,
And whispering air
Which sayeth softly:
“We spread no snare;

“Here dwell in safety,
Here dwell alone,
With a clear stream
And a mossy stone.

“Here the sun shineth
Most shadily;
Here is heard an echo
Of the far sea,
Though far off it be.”
- Christina Rossetti, Spring Quiet

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Through all the frozen winter
My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely, colored smells
That come in springtime only.

The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.

The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over."
- Kathryn Worth, Smells

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.”
- Emily Dickenson, # 103

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”
- William Shakespeare

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hold to the course, though the storms are about you;
Stick to the road where the banner still flies;
Fate and his legions are ready to rout you—
Give ’em both barrels—and aim for their eyes.

Life’s not a rose bed, a dream or a bubble,
A living in clover beneath cloudless skies;
And Fate hates a fighter who’s looking for trouble,
So give ’em both barrels—and shoot for the eyes.

Fame never comes to the loafers
and sitters,
Life’s full of knots in a shifting disguise;
Fate only picks on the cowards and quitters,
So give ’em both barrels—and aim for the eyes.
- Grantland Rice

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Winds of March, we welcome you,
There is work for you to do.
Work and play and blow all day,
Blow the Winter wind away.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“March bustles in on windy feet
And sweeps my doorstep and my street.
She washes and cleans with pounding rains,
Scrubbing the earth of winter stains.
She shakes the grime from carpet green
Till naught but fresh new blades are seen.
Then, house in order, all neat as a pin,
She ushers gentle springtime in.”
- Susan Reiner, Spring Cleaning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Buttercups and daisies,
Oh, the pretty flowers;
Coming ere the spring time,
To tell of sunny hours.
When the trees are leafless;
When the fields are bare;
Buttercups and daisies
Spring up here and there.”
- Mary Howitt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“March! March! March! They are coming
In troops to the tune of the wind.
Redheaded woodpeckers drumming,
Gold – crested thrushes behind;
Sparrows in brown jackets, hopping
Past every gateway and door;
Finches, with crimson caps, stopping
Just where they stopped before.
March! March! March! They are slipping
Into their places at last. . .
Literature white lily buds, dripping
Under the showers that fall fast;
Buttercups, violets, roses;
Snowdrop and bluebell and pink,
Throng upon throng of sweet posies
Bending the dewdrops to drink.
March! March! March! They will hurry
Forth at the wild bugle sound,
Blossoms and birds in a flurry,
Fluttering all over the ground.
Shake out your flags, birch and willow!
Shake out your red tassels, larch!
Grass blades, up from your earth – pillow.
Hear who is calling you. . . March.”
- Lucy Larcom, March

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.”
- Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“For winter’s rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins.”
- Algernon Charles Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“And then the rain began, the tonic, greening, transforming rain that comes only once a year.
At gray daylight, silver drops still clung to the undersides of peach limbs; but the rain had
stopped, and now every living blade and stalk whose destiny it is to be green was
astonishingly green.”
- Rachel Peden

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I have said that there was great pleasure in watching the ways in which different plants come through
the ground, and February and March are the months in which that can best be seen.”
- Henry N. Ellacombe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“When it’ too cold for comfort, the sun-filled garden promises that winter will be brief.”
- Norman Kent Johnson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!"
- Robert Browning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It is in this unearthly first hour of spring twilight that earth's almost agonized livingness is most felt.
This hour is so dreadful to some people that they hurry indoors and turn on the lights."
- Elizabeth Bowen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn."
- Lewis Grizzard

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water
changed their singing accents.

Tendernesses,
hesitantly,
reach toward the earth
from space,
and country lanes are showing
these unexpected
subtle risings
that find expression
in the empty trees."
- Rainer Marie Rilke, Early Spring

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park we saw a few daffodils close to the waterside. But as we went along there were more and yet more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a county turnpike toad. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew about the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake."
- Dorothy Wordsworth

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where did Gabriel get a lily,
In the month of March,
When the green
Is hardly seen
On the early larch?"
- Grace James

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I wonder if the sap is stirring yet,
If wintry birds are dreaming of a mate,
If frozen snowdrops feel as yet the sun
And crocus fires are kindling one by one:
Sing robin, sing:
I still am sore in doubt concerning Spring."
- Christina Rossetti

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"To what can our life on earth be likened?
To a flock of geese,
alighting on the snow.
Sometimes leaving a trace of their passage."
- Su Shi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes
and a laugh in her voice."
- Hal Borland

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'For my shield this day, I call
Heaven's might,
Sun's brightness,
Moon's whiteness,
Fire's glory,
Lightning's swiftness,
Wind's wildness,
Ocean's depth,
Earth's solidity,
Rock's immobility.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

'Feel the shift of balance,
from darkness to light growing stronger.'
'Welcome Spring! Now is the time for banishing Winter'

~~~~~~~~~~~

'...I go my ways
And when I find a mountain-rill
I set it in a blaze...
So either way
I'll get into the garden,
And I don't care what happens.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins."
- Algernon Charles Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon

~~~~~~~~

Spring Sowing

In March farmers turn their attention to the spring sowing. One custom associated with it involved the horses in the ploughing team being "Turned with the sun" at the end of the furrow. The sower would then bless the work in the name of the trinity, and toss a handfull of soil over each horse's rump.

~~~~~~~~

Daffodils

Williams Wordsworth

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.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a boy:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company;
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils

~~~~~~~~

Plant a Garden ~ (mostly) by Edgar A. Guest
(edited a leeeeetle by Gail :) )

If your purse no longer bulges
and you’ve lost your golden treasure

If at times you think you’re lonely
and have grown hungry for pleasure

Don’t sit by your hearth and grumble
don’t let mind and spirit harden

If it’s thrills of joy you wish for
get to work and plant a garden!

If it’s drama that you sigh for
plant a garden and you’ll get it

You will know the thrill of battle
fighting foes that will beset it …

If you long for entertainment and
for pageantry most glowing

Plant a garden and this summer spend
your time with green things growing.

If it’s comradeship you sight for
learn the fellowship of daisies

You will come to know your neighbor
by the blossoms that he raises.

If you’d get away from boredom
and find new delights to look for

Learn the joy of budding pansies
which you’ve kept a special nook for.

If you ever think of dying
and you fear to wake tomorrow

Plant a garden! It will cure you
of your melancholy sorrow.

Once you’ve learned to know peonies,
petunias, and roses

You will find every morning
some new happiness discloses.

~~~~~~~~

A Prayer in Spring

Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill

~~~~~~~~

Millions of Strawberries

Genevieve Tagged

Marcia and I went over the curve,
Eating our way down
Jewels of strawberries we didn't deserve,
Eating our way down.
Till our hands were sticky, and our lips painted,
And over us the hot day fainted,
And we saw snakes,
And got scratched, and a lust overcame us for the red
unmatched
Small buds of berries, till we lay down--
Eating out way down-- and rolled in the berries like two
little dogs
Rolled
In the late gold
And gnats hummed
And it was cold
And home we went, home without a berry,
Painted red and brown
Eating out way down

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I Meant To Do My Work Today

Richard Le Gallienne

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand--
So what could I do but laugh and go?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Be Thou my Vision

Ancient Irish

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart:
Nought be all else to me save that Thou art-
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom and Thou my true Word:
I ever with thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not, not man's empty praise,
Thou Mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.



~~~~~~

Time is one apricot blossom.
Space, a bee.
The Universe, honey.
And, the Goddess of Spring?

~~~~~

Be Still My Soul
-Katharina von Schegel

Be still, my soul! The Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul! Thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Be still my soul! Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake.
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul! The hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored>
Be still, my soul! When change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last

~~~~~~~~

sunlight breaks
cold silence–
a meadowlark trills

Mockingbirds
singing love tunes–
voices of dying winter.

a few flecks
of yellow–
forsythias awakening

Upstart mustard-greens
Old guard forsythias ...
Yellow riot.

winter sunshine
working in the garden
sunburnt bald head

Branches in blossom
shake to the rhythms of wind–
bees on rosemary.

Alive with bees ...
radiant pink
peach blossoms.

Every inch of ground
green–
midday in March.

Green beyond green
below gray skies,
brilliant forsythias.

Snowcapped peaks
in three directions–
wet green valley.

satisfying
cold water
swallowed

wet boots
drying on the porch–
a day's work done

The long walk over;
my panting dog
still playing.

Shadowless dusk
growing colder–
squealing teakettle.

From dark trees
an owl's hoot–
chilly night.

One week later
Six Directions of Green
Billions of leaf-buds.

day by day
winter disappears ...
millions of new leaves

warm sun
dry grass
roaring lawnmower


- the above is a mixture of various Haiku concrete and short Poems that I re-mixed and put together - sort of a diary of a gardener - like me ... : )

~~~~~~