Norman MacCaig relishes the advent of spring with his customary charm and originality.
And how cleverly he nails the personality of the blackbird! The lines, dating from 1979, are included in the splendid posthumous volume of his poems, edited by his son Ewen and published by Polygon in 2005.
SPRING DAY
That green alone
proves the foolishness of King Midas.
Spring wears no ass's ears. Its gold
will be buried and come up again
as snowdrops and tender grass blades.
A blackbird on a roof top
is warblingly meditating
on the philosophical concept
of being a blackbird.
And outrageous energies
swarm on the gean tree;
they bend their backs and slowly haul out
the first, the second bud.
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