i see it now in this still early day

sure it's not april but this poem by the english writer laurie lee still resonates with its sensual and langurous depiction of a morning not unlike the one i'm enjoying today. i came in contact with laurie's writing when i read the first two elements of his autobiographical trilogy which began with "cider with rosie", an account of his childhood in the village of slad, gloucestershire, england, in the period soon after the first world war. i raced through that and on into the second element entitled "as i walked out one midsummer morning". an exquisite telling of a young man's leaving home to see the world - on foot - this second book is one of my all-time favourite books and gets a couple of readings a year. i didn't bother to read the third book in the trilogy. entitled "a moment of war". i couldn't bring myself to shatter the idyllic world he had experienced to that point.

laurie's real claim to fame though is his poetry. i love poetry that tells me something in a way that feels "right". don't ask me what "right" is, but it has something to do with a deep, honest, truthful, insightful, mind-altering perspective that helps me really see. high standards but that's what i look for. alternately - is it beautiful?!!

here's an incredible opportunity to hear laurie himself tell of the writing of this poem and then - he reads it!!

april rise

if ever i saw blessing in the air
i see it now in this still early day
where lemon-green the vaporous morning drips
wet sunlight on the powder of my eye.

blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round
weeds of warm light whose every root and rod
splutters with soapy green, and all the world
sweats with the bead of summer in its bud.

if ever i heard blessing it is there
where birds in trees that shoals and shadows are
splash with their hidden wings and drops of sound
break on my ears their crests of throbbing air.

pure in the haze the emerald sun dilates,
the lips of sparrows milk the mossy stones,
while white as water by the lake a girl
swims her green hand among the gathered swans.

now, as the almond burns its smoking wick,
dropping small flames to light the candled grass;
now, as my low blood scales its second chance,
if ever world were blessed, now it is.

laurie lee

i hope it's beautiful wherever you are today!