I am Sending It to You for Safekeeping

That song

Elusive

I caught it in my hands today,

The song of nest building in the woods.

*

Only one song

Strikes fear into the heart of winter,

I am sending it to you for safekeeping.

********************

In the Japanese lunisolar calendar, the first of the six spring seasons begins on February 4th and runs through February 18th. It is aptly called the beginning of Spring- risshun (立春). Risshun is composed of three micro-seasons. This poem is for the second micro-season:

February 9–13 Bush Warblers Start Singing in the Mountains- kōō kenkan su(黄鶯睍睆)

Thank you for joining me on my travels through a micro-season year of poetry. I invite you to read other poems in the series found in my list Micro-Season Poem Cycle here on Medium with a subscription. Thank you to Thomas Gaudex of Scribe for originally publishing them and lifting them up from October 2023-October 2024.

2026’s February with its -15F temperatures doesn’t seem much like spring, but deep in my heart, I feel it coming. Hold on.

Natalie