April is National Poetry Month. As I’ve mentioned here before, however, every month is poetry month for me. 🙂 To celebrate these last few days in April, National Poetry Month, and the first signs of spring, I will post some poetry (some by others, some of my own). If you do not read poetry on a regular basis, this might be a good month to try it out. Then, remember to include some poetry readings in your regular reading list.
April
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Eyes tell, tell me, what you tell me,
telling something all too sweet,
making music out of beauty,
with a question hidden deep.
Still I think I know your meaning,
there behind your pupils’ brightness,
love and truth are your heart’s lightness,
that, instead of its own gleaming,
would so truly like to greet,
in a world of dullness, blindness,
one true look of human kindness,
where two kindred spirits meet.
I grew up in the south, where white magnolia trees with large, waxy leaves are a fairly common sight. In the Midwest, in a place I lived before, I had a Japanese Magnolia tree in the yard. Its flowers were pink and white, same as the pictures above. The tree would usually be in full bloom on Mother’s Day. After my first child (my daughter) was born, I had a picture taken with her next to that Japanese Magnolia tree. She was about five months old at the time. That photo is stored somewhere in a box of photographs– before everything went digital.