singing the spring

lately i have noticed
the frogs
singing springtime
out of mystery....

so busy!
so admirable, how devoted they are
to their nightly work....

i wonder
a little
whether spring might not come
if they stopped....

but then i see it's a group effort --

because the geese also fly it back in
out of deepest south....

trailing it on their wings
like wordsworth's
clouds of glory....

the lizards tug it gently out from under
the rocks where
they've been wrapped in it --
snuggled
right up against it
all winter long....

oh sometimes it seems so long
that we must journey through
the dark
alone
forlorn
brave and
hopeless....

sometimes it seems we drift
in a vacuum
of space and time --

our souls ashiver....

but beating hearts
seem to continue....

feet seem
to keep
inching
forward
to the next step --

then

unsuspected

a flash of
the green!

oh those shy tips!
how they peer and peek
out of the mud....

but doesn't their green
delight you?

and then
somehow
the air softens....

and our scrappy hearts
expand
with our
evolving breath....

i have noticed that
though frozen,

we also
soften
in the dark....

and when we are all soft enough,
the frogs begin
to chant....

slowly
slowly
their singing
turns the earth
back toward the burning sun....

stirring us gently
out of the fertile mystery....

are you ready to ripen?

to blossom with
the star-flowered plum?

to linger in sun-warmed disguise
under sheltering leaves,
and transform?

are you ready to burst with
your juicy life?

oh my friend!
imagine the frogs' delight!

___________________
©2011
Beth Anne Boardman