Lilacs in Bloom
Posted: 04/15/2011 Filed under: Nature, Photography, Poetry | Tags: Delights & Shadows, Old Lilacs, Ted Kooser 4 Comments »
Last year when the lilacs bloomed, I posted the poem below. I’m posting it again this year at lilac time, because I love it so much! The bloom in Virginia is about a month ahead of that in Kooser’s Nebraska, but the sentiment is no less lovely for the asynchrony.
Old Lilacs
Through early April cold,
these thin gray horses
have come near the house
as to a fence, and lean there
hungry for summer,
nodding their heads
with a nickering of twigs.
Their long legs are dusty
from standing for months
in winter’s stall, and their eyes
are like a cloudy sky
seen through bare branches
They are waiting for May
to come up from the barn
with her overalls pockets
stuffed with the fodder
of green. In a month
they will be slow and heavy,
their little snorts so sweet
you’ll want to stand
among them, breathing.
- Ted Kooser, from Delights & Shadows (2004)
Lilacs are my favourite! Just the other day I was thinking about when they might start blooming, wondering whether I’d have enough time to go and try to find a potted plant I could have all to myself on our porch. And since everything gets greener in your neck of the woods a few weeks ahead of our backyard, I think I still have time! Oh, my… I can almost smell it…. The scent of lilacs contains aromas of all that’s good in the world – all the goodness in one deep inhale.
Jana, I love your last sentence! We are of the same mind on that point! At Matt’s and my little family blog — where we post photos and notes about Bennett almost daily (we thought we’d spare A Life in Season readers all that new parent gushing) — we wrote this of Bennett’s first experience with lilacs:
The first time Bennett encountered lilacs, he leaned in, breathing in their sweet perfume.
A world with lilacs is surely a wonderful one.
If you’d like the link to the family blog, I would be happy to share it — just e-mail me at alifeinseason@gmail.com — but by no means feel obligated. Daily baby photos are not everyone’s cup of tea, we know! =)
And, I hope sweet lilacs find you this spring!
I too love the smell of lilacs. As soon as our bush in the back yard started to bloom I ran out and cut some off & placed them in a vase for the coffe table. They smelled incredible but sadly they only lasted a couple of days indoors. But they are still blooming but have left them alone to enjoy viewing from our living room windows.
How wonderful to be able to bring them indoors, if even for just a couple of days! And how lucky to have a lilac bush in your very own backyard — every spring, I am envious of our neighbors, who have TWO bushes, which we photograph, and which are always visited by beautiful swallowtail butterflies around this time.