Spring is Coming
A change so small it hardly seems
that anything has changed at all
but warmth sneaks in to icy dreams
and breaks them free of Winter's thrall
The skies are limned with hazy beams
and rain not snow from clouds will fall
as life returns to frozen streams
beneath the season's snowy shawl
Spring is Coming
and faster now and faster still
the snow is melting day by day
and water rushes down each hill
to fill the streams and run away
and streams join streams and streams until
a river runs and people say
"Today's the day that Winter's will
was broke and Spring is on its way"
Spring is Coming
The sun climbs in the sky and shines
down where for months no light has shone
as Spring confirms with many signs
that seasons change and Winter's gone
Bright blooms in thousands of designs
come forth for bees to light upon
while hibernation's snug confines
release all sleepers to the sun
Spring is Coming
The last steps of this great design
returning life to every clump
The season's heart must beat in time
a billion tons of sap to pump
And powered only by sunshine
a single great systolic thump
resounds through every stem and vine
and new life springs from last year's stump
Summer is here
The final fogs of spring are gone
the temperature begins to rise
and glens where once no sun had shone
are bathed in light from azure skies
and mother nature smiles upon
each other mother and her prize
as new life spreads itself anon
and sees the world through brand new eyes
Summer is here
And where there once was barren clay
in green and gold the fields are spun
where crops grow taller every day
and apples ripen in the sun
Where fields of grass turn into hay
and record yields are all outdone
and all across this land will say
this year our cup doth overrun
Summer is here
The air is warm, the sun is high
and from the fields so fresh and green
a lark ascends into a sky
in which no single cloud is seen
And as these halcyon days go by
with moonlit starlit nights between
all human hearts will heave a sigh
of pleasure in this life serene
Summer is here
The children have all day to climb
to run and jump and sing and play
For games and friends and joys sublime
with no thought for another day
To plant the seeds in summertime
of memories to put away
until when old and past their prime
they can recall this summer's day
It's Autumn
But no-one sees when Autumn starts
(Though start it does as Summer ends)
until the southbound flocks depart
with Swifts and Swallows and their friends
Then Fall is felt in human hearts
as Autumn's chilly hand extends
it's message from the weather charts
that nature's own timekeeper sends.
It's Autumn
The days go past much faster now
and Autumn's bounty is revealed
as harvester instead of plough
works back and forth across the field
and orchard fruit from off the bough
is added to the annual yield
'til all that nature can endow
is gathered in and doors are sealed
It's Autumn
The barns are full, the cattle fed
and workers thoughts begin to roam
to one long night, no sign of bed,
just mugs of beer with heads of foam
and great big chunks of fresh baked bread
warm, spread with honey off the comb
and all the words that must be said
to celebrate the harvest home.
It's Autumn
The pressure drops, the tempo slows
and harvest tools are put away
The fresh-hewn logs are stacked in rows
as it gets colder day by day
And as the bully north wind blows
the blue sky into shades of grey
each watcher of the weather knows
that Winter's just a breath away
It's Winter now
The sickly sun is slow to rise
and then bare overtops my head
Though at its height in leaden skies
the heat that's giv'n is quickly shed
and any light it brings to eyes
from where all hope of spring has fled
is lost, as quickly daylight dies
and sun goes early to its bed.
It's winter now
The snow is deep on field and fen
the land is iron hard and cold
Fell creatures stalk the lands of men
like those from ancient stories told
And autumn's bounty laid down then
by prudent folk in hidden hold
grows less and less in lair and den
and rich men learn they can't eat gold
It's winter now
As hard it was, it's harder now
and young and old are first to go
The babes just fade and old allow
themselves one last walk in the snow
The few survivors wonder how
they will get by when all they know
is gone and darkness does endow
the frozen night with fears that grow
It's winter now
It's winter now and silence reigns
Nobody lived to tell this tale
The people died, all that remains
is fallen stone and broken rail
But what was lost another gains
as wolves run fat in this lost vale
and never roam the frozen plains
so other villages prevail