by Philip C. Kolin

The earth hidden in darkness aspires
now toward the glories of renewal.
Not with drumrolls or clanging clouds
but in the unseen silence of taproots
gathering sweetness underground.

This starts the season of soft color, azaleas
cladding themselves in lithe purple
announcing the good news about
the lengthening and warming of a gentle sun.
The brown monotone that warped hope

gives way to the lush quiet of green shoots
sprawling across every place not censured
by dull cement. The world that wailed
in pelting chill these last bleak months
hallowed by the florescence of spring.

Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly. He has published over 40 books (on Shakespeare, modern dramatists) and including 15 collections of poetry, most recently Reaching Forever (in the Poiema Series of Wipf and Stock), Delta Tears: Poems (Main Street Mag), and Wholly God: Poems about Holiness (Wind and Water Press). His poetry has appeared in many Christian journals and has four times been selected as the featured poet for journals. He founded and edited the journal Vineyards: A Journal of Christian Poetry.