On the Neckar

This picture is of the Heidelberg bridge over the Neckar. My brother took this picture as we were floating down the Neckar in a barge-like tourist boat.

As the spring refuses to visit us here in Carson City, Nevada. I remember the German spring.

We would see the Germans in their small gardens, turning the beds. As it came closer to the Vernal Equinox, we would see the flowers.

Daffodils--small and large--would decorate the beds. I love what they call them, Osterglocken--easter bells. I wrote this poem about a German spring.

Ode to Spring

Ring Osterglocken:
easter-bells. Ring in,
gold daffodills, the
violent birth of spring

of blossoming lilacs, hyacinths, wisteria;
of budding oaks, ash, and birch;
of mating sparrows, blue tits, and orioles.

Ring in the life-giving rain.

Ring Osterglocken:
daffodils.

Ring.

Published in Bibliophilos 2002.