Andrew Young, the cleric poet and naturalist, relishes spring's offerings in his individualistic way in this sample from his Selected Poems (Carcanet, £9.95).

SPRING FLOWERS

Now we enjoy the rain,

When at each neighbour's door we hear

'How big primroses are this year' -

Tale we may live to hear again -

And dandelions flood

The orchards as though apple-trees

Dropped in the grass ripe oranges,

Boughs still in pink impatient bud,

When too we cannot choose,

But one foot and the other set

In celandine and violet,

Walking in gold and purple shoes,

Rain that through winter weeks

Spashed on our face and window pane,

And rising in these flowers again

Brightens their eyes and fats their cheeks.