Refrain

a poem for welcoming spring

My back porch is a special retreat for me, a thin place. From its vantage point, I love to observe the natural world. That was where this poem first came to life.

Water still clings
in dense droplets
to the tips of leaves
even though the sun
wakened hours ago. 

Last night's downpours 
cleansed nature's unswept strains,
and with dawn's ascent
murky shadows bow to the
razzle-dazzle of heavenly beams. 

Beneath a canopy
of dense, doused branches
little birds—wrens, sparrows, finches
feast at feeders, their hunger
pure as freshly washed earth. 

“Look to the birds of the air,”
offered the Rabbi. 
So I do. And I pray with
St. Francis, our bird whisperer,
Make me an instrument…
Fashioned from faith,
Attuned to peace,
Resonant with love. 

(Originally published in Foreshadow, January 2024)