Easter Blooms
for Julia Denne

When the earth warms
and is riven by rain,
pasque flowers rise,
again, through the straw
of last year, aglow
with the palest hues,
their soft haloes
pulsing with winds.

Nearby, the porcelain-
white, egg-white petals
of bloodroot lift off
from deep-dyed
rhizomes and red
fibrous nests, their green
and lobed leaves still furled,
like praying hands.

Today, they carpet
the still-leafless woodlands
like tiny fallen stars,
in magnitudes
that rocket the mind
toward infinity,
natural benignity,
perhaps even mercy.

Leslie Schultz

My thanks go to Julia Denne, whose beautiful photographs (used here by permission) inspired today’s poem!

The delicacy and brevity of these woodland flowers that emerge even before our northern trees leaf out signals spring to me, even more than the lengthening days or the sight of returning migratory birds. This year in Northfield, the profusion is greater than I can ever remember, and this week, dodging between rain drops, I have been out trying to capture a few images myself, which I might perhaps share in the days to come. For now, I am grateful to see these even earlier blooms from a few hundred miles south. Thank you, Julia!

LESLIE

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