Ah - Spring!

A Poem by Joey MacKenzie:

What other season plays such haunting tricks
Ev'n in January
Peeping from behind the skirts
Of winter!

Teasing, tantalising, ever-pleasing!
How often do we catch a glimpse of you
Before your season comes?

As in winter we await you
How eagerly we savour
Your delightful manifestations.

The indefinable feel of earth, air and sky
In the dun colours of east wind;
The pale emergent sun of February
Lighting on the hillside after rain.

Or in blustery March
The sudden song of lark
Caught up and borne along
The tearing wind.

As for all the signs and portents that you send –
Too fleet, too fugitive to apprehend –
We have oft been heard to say,
"Spring is in the air today."

Reproduced, with the family's permission, from Joey MacKenzie's publication 'A Handful of Verses', 1995.

Originally published in "Poetry Now Scotland" in 1992. Joey lived most of her life at Kilmory, on the north coast.
Picture shows Achateny Cottage, with the snow still on Rum beyond.