The Broken Wing/The Call of Spring
The Flowering Year
“A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread.”
Shelley
The Call of Spring
To Padmaja and Lilamani
Children, my children, the spring wakes anew,And calls through the dawn and the daytimeFor flower-like and fleet-footed maidens like you,To share in the joy of its play-time.
O'er hill-side and valley, through garden and grove,Such exquisite anthems are ringingWhere rapturous bulbul and maina and doveTheir carols of welcome are singing.
I know where the ivory lilies unfoldIn brooklets half-hidden in sedges,And the air is aglow with the blossoming goldOf thickets and hollows and hedges.
I know where the dragon-flies glimmer and glide,And the plumes of wild peacocks are gleaming,Where the fox and the squirrel and timid fawn hideAnd the hawk and the heron lie dreaming.
The earth is ashine like a humming-bird's wing,And the sky like a kingfisher's feather,O come, let us go and play with the springLike glad-hearted children together.