Spring and all -- William Carlos Williams

Guest poem submitted by Aseem Kaul:

(Poem #1846) Spring and all By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast -- a cold wind. Beyond, the waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen patches of standing water the scattering of tall trees All along the road the reddish purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines -- Lifeless in appearance, sluggish dazed spring approaches -- They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter. All about them the cold, familiar wind -- Now the grass, tomorrow the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf One by one objects are defined -- It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf But now the stark dignity of entrance -- Still, the profound change has come upon them: rooted they grip down and begin to awaken -- William Carlos Williams

It's Spring!! And what better way to sing the spring's advent but with this
glorious Williams' poem.

I love the way this poem captures the sense of dead things coming to life,
that stirring, quickening sensation that makes Spring such a magical time of
the year. The way the season seems to take hold of everything ("rooted they
/ grip down and begin to awaken"), and the world seems to take on colour and
shape again.

The best adjective I can think of to describe this poem is the one Williams
gives us himself: contagious.

Aseem.