Happy Vernal Equinox! & Looking Forward to April Poems — My Nineth Experiment!–in 2025

Welcome to Spring!

Here in Minnesota, the earth is just waking up. This week, we have seen the first robins returning, the first cardinals, and the first brilliant blue scilla buds. It might be windy and chilly, but the days are longer and warmer, and the land knows spring is unstoppable.

This year, I am returning for the ninth time to the practice of writing and sharing a poem each day in April. This challenge, which I first attempted ten years ago, in 2016, has proven to be fun, fruitful, and sometimes frustrating for me. (Last year, I gave myself a fallow April, so this will be my ninth attempt.) Again this year, I will be sharing each morning’s poem via email, with an additional April something here on Winona Media. If you previously received emailed poems in 2023, you are already on the list. (Let me know if you wish to be removed from the list this year.) If you would like to be added to the list, let me know.

And if you are someone who is also participating in the April poems this year and would like me to share that information here, let me know! The more, the merrier!

My plan for this year’s poems comes from talking with botanist friend Bob Benson. I shall say more about that on April 1st. Meanwhile, may these crazy March winds blow all our winter cobwebs away–

Winter’s Last Sunset (March 19, 2025)

Sign of Early Spring

Every year, we wait for it. The tiny Siberian wildflower known to us as scilla, announces spring as nothing else does. I had never heard of it before moving to Northfield, but now it is one of my very favorites.

In a few weeks, the whole town will be awash with these intense blue blooms. For several weeks now, I have been watching the hearty green spears begin to poke out of the ground and take snow squalls in their stride. Today–when the sky was an iron-fisted grey, not allowing a single golden ray or a glimpse of blue to slip through the clouds–the muddy ground yielded this exciting vanguard of spring. Very cheering!

Leslie