April Poem

APRIL SONG

Would you weave me an April-green garland?
Would you weave me a garland of green?
I don’t ask for a garland of flowers,
For flowers are too briefly seen.

Would you weave me a garland with birch stems?
Would you weave in some new blades of rye?
They might capture the song of the skylark
As it carols aloft in the sky.

Would you weave me a garland with hawthorn,
With the leaf that they call “bread and cheese”?
Would you weave in some young shoots of spring grass
That are sun-warmed and scented with ease?

Would you weave me a garland with willow,
With its tresses of pale green-gold?
Would you weave in some leaflets of strawberry
For the hope of the fruit I might hold?

Would you weave in some leaves of the cherry?
Oh, I cherish the cherry’s pure bloom,
But those blossoms—they blight with their beauty
As they poignantly preach of our doom…

For the blossoms are achingly lovely,
And the blossoms are piercingly sweet,
But the blossoms—fast fading and falling—
Soon scatter like snow at our feet.

I don’t ask for a garland of flowers,
For flowers are too briefly seen.
Would weave me an April-green garland—
A garland that’s just April-green?