Readings March 27 2014

Our first reading was by Hugh Nourse (from a recommendation by Jacqueline Elsner, Oconee Co. librarian):

We Could Wish Them A Longer Stay

Plum, peach, apple, and pear
And the service tree on the hill
Unfold blossom and leaf.
From them comes scented air
As the brotherly petals spill.
Their tenure is bright and brief.

We could wish them a longer stay,
We could wish them a charmed bough
On a hill untouched by the flow
Of consuming time; but they
Are lovelier, dearer now
Because they are soon to go,
Plum, peach, apple and pear
And the service blooms whiter than snow.

from Bow Down In Jericho, 1950, by Byron Herbert Reece, pp. 107-108

Jackie says:

Here is a perfect Byron Herbert Reece poem for right now. For reciting a Reece poem, I am partial to the mountain pronunciation of "service" as in "sar-vice."  He did not have a strong mountain accent, from recordings of his voice. I don't know how he pronounced the name of the tree. But certainly the people in Choestoe would have pronounced it the mountain way!

Our second reading was read by Don Hunter:

March - Signs of Spring 

March is a wonderful month of hope. Winters back has been broken and signs of spring are stirring, though it may still feel cold and dark. The old Roman calendar had only ten months. January and February weren't part of it; they were just called lithe dead season." March was named by the Romans after Mars, the god of war and also of vegetation, which is fitting as this was the month that soldiers went to battle and farmers began planting.

The saying "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" refers to the constellations Leo the Lion and Aries the Ram - both are prominent in the March sky. Also, the weather is often ferocious in early March and gentler at the end of the month.

This is the month to begin looking for signs of new plant life. Go outside and listen to the chatter of the birds, feel the first warm breezes, smell the damp earth, and know that here and now, all is right. Be present to the sound of those birds, that rushing wind, the warming land. 

From The Nature Connection, An Outdoor Workbook for Kids, Families, and Classrooms by Clare Walker Leslie, a nationally known naturalist, artist and educator.