Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Valley Spirit Center, Red Bluff, California
April: Poetry, Quotations, Sayings, Facts, Information, Quips, Aphorisms
"The sun was warm but the wind was
chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March."
- Robert Frost
"Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly--and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing."
- Omar Khayyám
"The first
of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year."
- Mark Twain
"O Day after day we can't
help growing older.
Year after year spring can't help seeming younger.
Come let's enjoy our winecup today,
Nor pity the flowers fallen."
- Wang Wei, On Parting with Spring
"The April rain,
the April rain,
Comes slanting down in fitful showers,
Then from the furrow shoots the grain,
And banks are fledged with nestling flowers;
And in grey shawl and woodland bowers
The cuckoo through the April rain
Calls once again."
- Mathilde Blind, April Rain
"Keep your faith
in all beautiful things;
in the sun when it is hidden,
in the Spring when it is gone."
- Roy R.
Gilson
"When the time is ripe for certain things,
these things appear in different places in the manner
of violets coming to light in the early spring."
- Farkas Bolyai
"Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sellp-song on our roof at night--
And I love the rain."
- Langston Hughes, 1902-1967,
April Rain Song
"Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers."
- Thomas Tusser, A Hundred Good Points of
Husbandry, 1557
"I sing of brooks, of
blossoms, birds, and bowers:
Of April, May, or June, and July flowers.
I sing of Maypoles, Hock-carts, wassails, wakes,
Of bridegrooms, brides, and of the bridal cakes."
- Robert Herrick, Hesperides, 1648
"Now that the
winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful spring."
- Thomas Carew, The
Spring, 1630
"This spring as
it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.
I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze."
- D. H.
Lawrence, The Enkindled Spring
"When the April wind wakes the call for the
soil, I hold the plough as my only hold upon the earth, and, as I follow through the fresh and fragrant furrow, I am planted with every foot-step, growing, budding, blooming into a spirit of spring."
- Dallas Lore Sharp, 1870-1929
"If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year,
or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake,
and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would
be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change!
But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity.
To most men only the cessation of the miracle would be
miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God's power
seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Hark, I hear a robin calling!
List, the wind is from the south!
And the orchard-bloom is falling
Sweet as kisses on the mouth.
In the dreamy vale of beeches
Fair and faint is woven mist,
And the river's orient reaches
Are the palest amethyst.
Every limpid brook is singing
Of the lure of April days;
Every piney glen is ringing
With the maddest roundelays.
Come and let us seek together
Springtime lore of daffodils,
Giving to the golden weather
Greeting on the sun-warm hills."
- Lucy Maud Montgomery, Spring Song
"The roofs are shining from the rain,
The sparrows twitter as they fly,
And with a windy April grace
The little clouds go by.
Yet the back yards are bare and brown
With only one unchanging tree--
I could not be so sure of Spring
Save that it sings in me."
- Sara Teasdale, April
"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become,
I will always plant a large garden in the spring.
Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one
gets from participating in nature's rebirth?"
- Edward Giobbi
"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and
dirty world."
- Virgil A. Kraft
"April is the cruelest
month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."
- T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, 1922
"When the clouds
shake their hyssops, and the rain
Like holy water falls upon the plain,
'Tis sweet to gaze upon the springing grain
And see your harvest born.
And sweet the little breeze of melody
The blackbord puffs upon the budding tree,
While the wild poppy lights upon the lea
And blazes 'mid the corn."
- Francis
Ledwidge, A Rainy Day in April
"Spring makes everything look filthy."
- Katherine Whitehorn
| Months and Seasons Quotes, Poems, Saying, Lore, Ideas, Chores, Holidays, Links |
|||
| Winter | Spring | Summer | Fall |
| December | March | June | September |
| January | April | July | October |
| February | May | August | November |
"The first of April, some do
say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day.
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment."
- Poor Robin's Almanac,
1790
"In the landscape of
Spring there is neither
better or worse.
The flowering branches grow naturally,
some long, some short."
- Alan Watts, Beat Zen, Square Zen,
quoting a Chan Master
"No days such
honored days as these! While yet
Fair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wide
For some fair thing which should forever bide
On earth, her beauteous memory to set
In fitting frame that no age could forget,
Her name in lovely April's name did hide,
And leave it there, eternally allied
To all the fairest flowers Spring did beget."
- Helen Hunt
Jackson, Calendar of Sonnets - April, 1875
"From some home a jade flute sends dark notes
drifting,
Scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-yang.
Tonight, if we should hear the willow-breaking song,
Who could help but long for the gardens of home?"
-
Li Po, Spring Night, 760
"Flower god, god of the spring, beautiful,
bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!
She still smiles on their innocence,
She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,
Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:
Thus one cunning in music
Wakes old chords in the memory:
Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.
One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal
Green - one more, and my bosom
Feels new life with an ecstasy."
- Robert Louis Stevenson, Flower God, God of the
Spring
"Sweet spring, full of
sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie."
- Herbert
"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if
it were voices
instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable
shrieking into the heart of the night."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer
Maria Rilke
"Flower god, god
of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!"
- Robert
Louis Stevenson, Flower God, God of the Spring, 1890
"I love spring anywhere, but if I could
choose
I would always greet it in a garden."
- Ruth Stout
"By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. The foe long since in silence slept; Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; And Time the ruined bridge has swept Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. On this green bank, by this soft stream, We set to-day a votive stone; That memory may their deed redeem, When, like our sires, our sons are gone." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn
Cuttings - April - Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo
"April hath put a spirit of youth in
everything."
- William Shakespeare
"Beauty is a form of genius - is
higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like
sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon."
- Oscar Wilde
"So Spring comes
merry towards me here, but earns
No answering smile from me, whose life is twin'd
With the dead boughs that winter still must bind,
And whom today the Spring no more concerns.
Behold,
this crocus is a withering flame;
This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom's part
To breed the fruit that breeds the serpent's art.
Nay, for these Spring-flowers, turn thy face from them,
Nor stay till on the year's last lily-stem
The white cup shrivels round the golden heart."
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Barren Spring,
1870
"Poets and songwriters speak highly of spring
as one of the great joys of life in the temperate zone, but in the real world most of spring is disappointing. We looked forward to it too long, and the spring we had in mind in February was warmer and dryer than the actual spring when it finally arrives. We’d expected it to be a whole season, like
winter, instead of a handful of separate moments and single afternoons."
- Barbara Holland, Endangered Pleasures
"Spring makes
everything young again except man."
- Richter
"To what
purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?"
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, Spring
"In the glow of
the dawn,
Welcome a new day,
Greet the golden sunlight or rain,
Nature in all its subtlety.
Whip of the wind,
Earth unfolds,
Softly falling rain,
Growing plants and buds blossoming.
Visions of the earth, with glories of nature,
Beauty of the daffodils,
Sunshine and rain from a rainbow,
Awe! Nature in full bloom."
- Blanche Black, Springtime
"In snowbound,
voiceless,
mountain depths,
to herald spring,
pine trees sound in tune."
- Princess Shikishi
"Ahh, the wide almond groves in full white flower
Stunning in the morning sun.
Old naked Winter in his garb of grays and browns has run.
Forsythia blooms come and go in the blink of a yellow Eye,
Then, suddenly, mysteriously, Green erupts; and we sigh."
- Michael P.
Garofalo, Cuttings
"In Celtic
tradition, the night of April 30 was thought of as the darkest of the year, when witches flew to frighten, spawning evil throughout the land. In response, people pounded on kettles, slammed doors, cracked whips, rang church bells and made all the noise they could to scare off the corruption they imagined to be moving on the moist air. They lit bonfires and torches and witch- proofed their houses with spring boughs. Such vigils were kept throughout the night until the rising of the May-dawn."
- May
Day
"Certain miracles that I beheld there have
haunted my memory
ever since: a gray April morning of sirocco, when the almond
blossoms, the flaming tulips, the young green of the vines, hung
as if painted on the motionless air; a summer night when the
roses had an unearthly pallor under a half-eaten moon, whose
ghostliness was somehow one with their perfume and with the
phosphorescence of dew tipping their petals; a day when the
trees stood part submerged in fog, into which leaves dropped
slowly, slowly, one after another, and sank out of sight.
- H. G. Dwight, Gardens and Gardening,
Atlantic Monthly, 1912
"The seasons, like greater
tides, ebb and flow across the continents.
Spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about fifteen miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide. Most of us, like the man who lives on the bank of a river and watches the stream flow by, see only one phase of the movement of spring. Each
year the season advances toward us out of the south, sweeps around us, goes flooding away to the north."
- Edwin Way Teale, North With the Spring
"O thou
with dewy locks, who lookest down
Thro' the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!
The hills tell each other, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth,
And let thy holy feet visit our clime.
Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumed garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our love-sick land that mourns for thee."
- William Blake, To Spring, 1820
"We do not
ask what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens... The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking
in fresh nourishment."
- Johannes
Kepler, Mysterium Cosmographicum
"And fairy month of waking mirth
From whom our joys ensue
Thou early gladder of the earth
Thrice welcome here anew
With thee the bud unfolds to leaves
The grass greens on the lea
And flowers their tender boon receives
To bloom and smile with thee."
- John Clare, Spring
"This outward spring and garden are a
reflection of the inward garden."
- Rumi
"In Roman mythology, Flora was a goddess of flowers and the
season of spring. While she was otherwise a relatively minor figure in
Roman mythology, being one among several fertility goddesses, her association
with the spring gave her particular importance at the coming of springtime. Her
festival, the
Floralia,
was held in April or early May and symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life,
marked with dancing, drinking, and flowers. Her Greek equivalent was
Chloris.
Flora was married to
Favonius,
the wind god, and her companion was Hercules. Due to her association with
plants, her name in modern English also means plant life. Flora achieved
more prominence in the neo-pagan revival of Antiquity among Renaissance
humanists than she had ever enjoyed in ancient Rome."
- Flora
(Mythology) - Wikipedia
Detail of Flora from Primavera by Botticelli, c. 1482
"Flora is the Roman Goddess of flowering
plants, especially those that bear fruit. Spring, of course, is Her season, and
She has elements of a Love-Goddess, with its attendant attributes of fertility,
sex, and blossoming. She is quite ancient; the Sabines are said to have named a
month for Her (which corresponds to our and the Roman April), and She was known
among the Samnites as well as the Oscans, where She was called Flusia. She was
originally the Goddess specifically of the flowering crops, such as the grain or
fruit-trees, and Her function was to make the grain, vegetables and trees bloom
so that autumn's harvest would be good. She was invoked to avert rust, a nasty
fungal disease of plants that causes orange growths the exact color of rusting
iron, and which was (is) an especial problem affecting wheat. Hers is the
beginning of the process that finds its completion with
Pomona, the Goddess of
Fruit and the Harvest; and like Pomona, Flora had Her own flamen, one of
a small number of priests each in service to a specific Deity. The flamens were
said to have been instituted by Numa, the legendary second King of Rome who
succeeded Romulus; and whether Numa really existed or not, the flamens were
undoubtedly of ancient origin, as were the Deities they served."
-
Flora - Roman Goddess
"Oh, give
us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees."
- Robert Frost, A Prayer
in Spring
"An
altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
A print of a vermilion foot;
A purple finger on the slope;
A flippant fly upon the pane;
A spider at his trade again;
An added strut in chanticleer;
A flower expected everywhere ..."
- Emily Dickinson, Nature: April
"All that
is sweet, delightful, and amiable in this world, in the serenity of the air, the fineness of seasons, the joy of light, the melody of sounds, the beauty of colors, the fragrance of smells, the splendor our precious stones, is nothing else but Heaven breaking through the veil of this world, manifesting itself in such a degree and darting forth in such variety so much of its own nature."
- William Law
"Spring
in the world!
And all things are made new!"
-
Richard Hovey
"Beneath these fruit-tree boughs
that shed
Their snow-white blossoms on my head,
With brightest sunshine round me spread
Of spring's unclouded weather,
In this sequestered nook how sweet
To sit upon my orchard-seat!
And birds and flowers once more to greet,
My last year's friends together."
- William Wordsworth
"The first day of spring is one
thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month."
- Henry Van Dyke, Fisherman's Luck, 1899
"Spring slattern of seasons
you have soggy legs
and a muddy petticoat
drowsy
is your hair your
eyes are sticky with
dream and you have a sloppy body from
being brought to bed of crocuses
when you sing in your whisky voice
the grass rises on the head of the earth
and all the trees are put on edge
spring
of the excellent jostle of
thy hips
and the superior"
- E. E. Cummings, Spring Onmipotent Goddess Thou
"Just sitting quietly,
doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself."
- Zenrin poem
"Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;
it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow."
- Alice M. Swaim
"From you have I been absent
in the spring,
When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim
Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing,
That heavy Saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue
Could make me any summer's story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew;
Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play."
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 98
"Spring,
the sweet Spring, is the year's pleasant king;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing--
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The palm and may make country houses gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay--
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes our ears do greet--
Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!
Spring, the sweet Spring!"
- Thomas Nashe, Spring,
1590
"Are we to look at cherry blossoms
only in full bloom, the moon
only when it is cloudless? To long for the moon while looking on
the rain, to lower the blinds and be unaware of the passing of
the spring - these are even more deeply moving. Branches
about to blossom or gardens strewn with flowers are worthier of our admiration."
- Yoshida Kenko
"Sakura, Sakura.
Noyamamo satomo
Miwatasu kagiri.
Kasumi-ka kumo-ka.... asahi-ni niou
Sakura, Sakura,
Hanazakari.
Cherry Blossoms, cherry blossoms.
On mountains, in villages.
As far as you can see.
They look like fog or clouds. They are fragrant in the morning sun.
Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms.
In full bloom."
"Dirty days hath September
April June and November
From January up to May
The rain it raineth every day
All the rest have thirty-one
Without a blessed gleam of sun
And if any of them had two-and-thirty
They'd be just as wet and twice as dirty."
"Science has never drummed up quite as
effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day."
- W. Earl Hall
"One swallow does not make a
spring,
nor does one fine day."
- Aristotle
"When April
scatters charms of primrose gold
Among the copper leaves in thickets old,
And singing skylarks from the meadows rise,
To twinkle like black stars in sunny skies;
When I can hear the small woodpecker ring
Time on a tree for all the birds that sing;
And hear the pleasant cuckoo, loud and long --
The simple bird that thinks two notes a song."
- William
Henry Davies, April's Charms
"Break open
A cherry tree
And there are no flowers;
But the spring breeze
Brings forth myriad blossoms."
- Ikkyu Sojun, 1394-1481
"Late April and you are three;
today
We dug your garden in the yard.
To curb the damage of your play,
Strange dogs at night and the moles tunneling,
Four slender sticks of lath stand guard
Uplifting their thin string.
So you were the first to
tramp it down.
And after the earth was sifted close
You brought your watering can to drown
All earth and us. But these mixed seeds are pressed
With light loam in their steadfast rows.
Child, we've done our best."
- W. D. Snodgrass
"In my old home
which I forsook, the cherries
are in bloom."
- Issa, 1800
"My
wretched feet, flayed and swollen to lameness by the sharp
air of January, began to heal and subside under the gentler
breathings of April; the nights and mornings no longer by their
Canadian temperature froze the very blood in our veins; we
could now endure the play-hour passed in the garden."
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
"Spring
has again returned.
The Earth is like a child that knows many poems.
Many, O so many. For the hardship
of such long learning she receives the prize.
Strict was her teacher.
The white in the old man's beard pleases us.
Now, what to call green, to call blue,
we dare to ask: She knows, She knows!"
- Rainer Marie Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, XXI
"Meadowlarks
give lusty cheers
when spring appears
when spring appears.
Buds and seeds
prick up their ears
and blades of grass
show eager spears.
And only icicles
weep tears
when spring appears
when spring appears."
- Aileen Fisher
"No Winter
lasts forever, no Spring skips its turn.
April is a promise that May is bound to keep, and we know it."
- Hal Borland
"How many million Aprils came
before I ever knew
how white a cherry bough could be,
a bed of squills, how blue
And many a dancing April
when life is done with me,
will lift the blue flame of the flower
and the white flame of the tree
Oh burn me with your beauty then,
oh hurt me tree and flower,
lest in the end death try to take
even this glistening hour..."
- Sara
Teasdale, Blue Squills, 1920
"The year's at spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill sides's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven -
All's right with the world!"
- Robert Browning, The
Year's at the Spring, 1870
"All the
wild sweetness of the flower
Tangled against the wall.
It was that magic, silent hour....
The branches grew so tall
They twined themselves into a bower.
The sun shown ... and the fall
Of yellow blossom on the grass!
You feel that golden rain?
Both of you could not hold, alas,
(both of you tried, in vain)
A memory, stranger. So I pass....
It will not come again."
- Katherine Mansfield, Spring Wind in London, 1920
"Dropped off
body and mind -
weeding new cuttings."
- Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings
"For lo, the winter is
past, the rain is over and gone;
the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."
- Song of Solomon
"In April, we cannot see
sunflowers in France, so we might say the sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of
seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the
sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun,
heat, rain and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist."
- Thich Nhat Hanh
"You can always tell it's
April
By the sound of falling rain
That mystic, mournful music
As it trickles down the drain.
We're told we should be
thankful
For the kiss of April showers
As it washes all the grass clean
And prepares the soil for flowers.
There's another side to
April
Which doesn't bode us good,
When that mini, manic maelstrom
Turns the lawn to liquid mud."
- Thomas Vaughan Jones, O'
To Be in April
" 'Tis
the noon of the spring-time,
"That age is best which is the first "April is no month for
burials."
"Through primrose tufts, in that green bower, The birds around me hopped and played, The budding twigs spread out their fan, If this belief from heaven be sent, "Winter's done, and April's in
the skies,
Yet never a bird In the wind-shaked elm or the maple is heard;
For green meadow-grasses wide levels of snow,
And blowing of drifts where the crocus should blow;
Where wind-flower and violet, amber and white;
On south-sloping brooksides should smile in the light,
O'er the cold winter-beds of their late-waking roots
The frosty flake eddies, the ice crystal shoots;
And, longing for light, under wind-driven heaps,
Round the boles of the pine-wood the ground-laurel creeps,
Unkissed of the sunshine, unbaptized of showers,
With buds scarcely swelled, which should burst into flowers!"
- John Greenleaf Whittier, April
When youth and blood are warmer."
- Robert Herrick
And there's the windflower chilly
- A. E. Housman,
The Lent Lilly, 1896
- Leo Cox,
Rite of Spring
The periwinkle trails its wreath;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
Their thoughts I cannot measure;
But the least motion which they made,
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can
That there was pleasure there.
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?"
- William Wordsworth, Lines Written in Early
Spring
Earth, look up with laughter in your eyes!"
- Charles G. D. Roberts, An April Adoration, 1896
"Daisies smell-less, yet most
quaint, "Narcotic greens "Spring is the
Period "I smile, of course,
"Hail in the
Spring, a start of new beginnings. "This I saw on
an April day: And this
I found in an April field:
And sweet thyme true,
Primrose, first born child of Ver,
Merry Spring-time's harbinger."
- Francis Beaumont, Two Noble Kinsmen
narcotic greens
like reeling firmaments disclose
in their appearing randomness
the sweetest means that you or she
or any wandering Thales might
choose to be
wonder-struck with
at the moment
when we die"
- Marianne Bluger, In
April
Express from God.
Among the other seasons
Himself abide,
But during March and April
None stir abroad
Without a cordial interview
With God."
- Emily
Dickinson, Spring is the Period, #844
And go on drinking tea,
Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall
My buried life, and Paris in the Spring,
I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world
To be wonderful and youthful, after all."
- Henry James, Portrait of a Lady
Creativity awe-inspiring gives a reason to be living.
Plant life showing life anew, a wonder to be found.
New born lambs playing in the fields, birds nesting all around
People enjoying the sun and the warmth, feeling good to be alive.
Spring gives a purpose to our lives, a touch of Paradise."
- Kay M.
Sutton, Bring in the Spring
Warm rain spilt from a sun-lined cloud,
A sky-flung wave of gold at evening,
And a cock pheasant treading a dusty path
Shy and proud.
A new white calf in the sun at noon,
A flash of blue in a cool moss bank,
And tips of tulips promising flowers
To a blue-winged loon."
- James Hearst,
In April
"When March goes on
forever,
And April's twice as long,
Who gives a damn if spring has come,
As long as winter's gone."
- R. L. Ruzicka
Unless a tree has borne blossoms in
spring,
you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.
"April rain is here again;
Hear it pitter, pitter, patter,
On the leaves and on the trees,
See it spitter, spitter, spatter.
Rain, oh rain, don't go away
We need you for flow'rs in May;
Drip, drip, drop and do not stop,
Send a little rain our way."
- Nina B. Hartford,
April Rain
"There is
not any haunt of prophecy,
"Is it so
small a thing
Nor any old chimera of the grave,
Neither the golden underground, nor isle
Melodious, where spirits gat them home,
Nor visionary south, nor cloudy palm
Remote on heaven's hill, that has endured
As April's green endures; or will endure
Like her remembrance of awakened birds,
Or her desire for June and evening, tipped
By the consummation of the swallow's wings."
- Wallace Stevens,
Sunday Morning
To have enjoyed the sun,
To have lived light in the spring,
To have loved, to have thought, to have done?"
- Matthew Arnold,
Empedocles on Etna, 1870
April's Moons
"Ashes Moon, Awakening Moon, Big Spring Moon, Big Summer
Moon, Black Oaks Tassel Moon, Broken Snowshoe Moon, Budding Time Moon,
Budding Trees Moon, Bullhead Moon, Cherry Blossom Moon, Daisy Moon, Moon,
Egg Moon, Moon, Fish Moon, Flower Moon, Frog Moon, Glittering Snow on Lake
Moon, Grass Moon, Gray Goose Moon, Great Sand Storm Moon, Green Grass Moon,,
Growing Moon, Half Spring Moon, Hare Moon, Ice Breaking in the River Moon,
Leaf Split Moon, Loon Moon, Maple Moon, Maple Sugar Moon, Maple Sap Boiling
Moon, Moon of Greening Grass, Moon of Red Grass Appearing, Moon of the Big
Leaves, Moon of the Red Grass Appearing, Moon of Windbreak, Moon When Geese
Return in Scattered Formation, Moon When Nothing Happens, Moon When the
Geese Lay Eggs, Moon When They Set Indian Corn, Peony Moon, Pink Moon,
Planter's Moon, Planting Corn Moon, Planting Moon, Poinciana Moon, Red Grass
Appearing Moon, Ring Finger Moon, Snowshoe Breaking Moon, Spring Moon,
Sprouting Grass Moon, Strawberry Moon, Strong Moon, Sugar Maker Moon, Summer
Moon, Sweet Pea Moon, Tulip Moon, White Lady Moon, Wildcat Moon, Willow
Moon, Wind Moon, Wisteria Moon, Yellow Moon"
- Kerrdulne,
Beyond the Fields We Know
"Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of
Spring The Moving Finger writes; and, having
writ,
"In
many ways April is a kind of down time, shoulder season, off-peak, a
kind of gray zone between the big winter events and the promise of summer.
So perhaps it is the crocuses, the slightly warmer days, the lengthening
hours of light that makes April also about poetry. Popularly conceived of as
off-peak, the practice of poetry seems to fit in with the promise of the season.
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly -- and Lo! The Bird is on the Wing.
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
- Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
- Loss Pequeno Glazier, Poems for April
"When the grass
was closely mown,
Spring
and daisies came apace;
Walking on the lawn alone,
In the turf a hole I found,
And hid a soldier underground.
Grasses hide my hiding place;
Grasses run like a green sea
O'er the lawn up to my knee."
- Robert Louis Stevenson, The Dumb Soldier
"Once
a day and sometimes more
Links and References
Trees
- Poems, quotes, links and resources April Weather Lore An April flood carries away both the frog and his brood. April showers bring May flowers. April is half March, half May. April weather: rain and sunshine both together. April weather is more capricious than
winter. April weather likes to repeat the April
Fool's Day.
Oak
before Ash and we're in for a splash, April Folklore Astrological Signs: Aries,
March 21 - April 20
Astrological Signs: Taurus,
April 21 - May 20
April
Birthstones:
Diamond Return to the Top of this Webpage
April
Garden Chores Red Bluff, North Sacramento Valley,
California, USA USDA Zone 9 Mow lawns and field. April Gardening Chores and
Tips for U.S.A. Zones Oregon State University
April Tips
Earth Wise Creations
April Tips - Zone 9 Seasonal Garden Chores - Links Top Garden Projects
for April in the Pacific Northwest by Ed Hume 52 Weeks in the California Garden by
Richard Smaus April
Gardening Tips from Ortho The
Garden Helper Tips for April - Northern U.S. Gardening
Tips - April - New York Botanical Garden The
Gay Gardener - Monthly Chores Return to the Top of this Webpage
Photographs in April from Red Bluff, California
I look out my day dream door
To see if spring is out there yet
I'm really anxious, but mustn't fret.
I see the snow a melting down
and lots of mud and slush around
I know the grass will surely sprout
and birds and flowers will come about.
But why oh why does it take so long?
I'm sure the calendar can't be wrong.
Sunshine fills my heart with cheer
I wish that spring were really here."
- Edna T.
Helberg, Longing for Spring
April - Mystical World Wide Web
Can Teach Songs
and Poems of Spring
Celebrate
Spring. Gooseberry Patch, 1997.
Cherry Blossoms
in Washington - History
Cuttings - April.
Short poems by Michael P.
Garofalo.
Earth Calendar - Wiccan Holidays
Easter and Spring
Poems by Children
Greetings,
Lore and Customs for Springtime
Japanese Women's
Nature Poetry: Spring
Native American Lore for
April
Piskanti: Icons of the Universe
(Easter Eggs)
Quotes for Gardeners. Over 2,700 Quotes
arranged
by 130 topics.
Spring and
Easter Stories and Poems
Spring - Quotes, Poems, Sayings
and Quips for Gardeners
Spring: Links and Ideas for Teachers
Spring - Vernal Equinox
Ceremonies-
Sprung David Knobel
Victoria's
Keepsakes - Spring QuotesApril showers bring Spring flowers.
Don't ever bet on April weather.
April wet, good wheat.
A cold April brings us bread and wine.
Ash before Oak and we're in for a soak.
Clichés for
Gardeners
Weather Lore
Watering as needed.
Clean up and weed vegetable gardens.
Dig, roto-till, and amend garden soil.
Clean up hiding places for bugs.
Protect new tree trunks from sun - white paint.
Fertilize berry vines.
Enjoy the many roses, pyracanthas, lavender and bottlebrush in bloom.
Spray trees and shrubs - borers.
Plant summer vegetables.
Shape shrubs.
Weed, weed, weed ....
Fertilize lawns.
Prune shrubs after flowering.
Write a poem. Keep a garden journal.
Plant perennials.
Prune evergreens.
Plant seeds.
Hummingbird feeders cleaned and in place.
Remove dead branches and trees.
Use straw as mulch.
Don't get sunburnt.
Flush driplines and check to make sure they are working properly.
Sit and observe.
Red Bluff Gardens - Comparison from 1998 - 2007
Return to the Top of this Webpage
More Quotes for Gardeners
Spirituality and Concerns of the Soul
Simplicity and the Simple Life
Pulling Onions: Quips and
Observations of a Gardener
By Michael P. Garofalo
Clichés for Gardeners and Farmers
The History of Gardening Timeline From Ancient Times to the 20th Century
Short Poems by Michael P. Garofalo
Awards and Recognition for this Web Site
Willpower, Resolve, Determination: Quotes, Poems, Sayings
Quotes
for Gardeners
Quotes, Sayings, Proverbs, Poetry, Maxims, Quips, Clichés,
Adages, Wisdom
A Collection Growing to Over 3,500 Quotes, Arranged by 140 Topics
Many of the Documents Include Recommended Readings and Internet Links.
Over 6 MB of Text.
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Distributed on the Internet by Michael P. Garofalo
I
Welcome Your Comments, Ideas, Contributions, and Suggestions
E-mail Mike Garofalo in Red Bluff, California
A Short Biography of Mike
Garofalo
April
- Quotes, Poems,
Folklore, Customs, Garden Chores.
Last updated on
March 18, 2008
This document was first distributed on the Internet in January 2002.
The History of Gardening Timeline
Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong
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