The Poet Comments on Yet Another Approaching Spring

Don't flowers put on their

prettiness each spring and

go to it with

everything they've got? Who

would criticize the bed of

yellow tulips or the blue

hyacinths?

So put a

bracelet on your

ankle with a 

bell on it and make a

little music for

the earth beneath your foot, or

wear a hat with hot-colored

ribbons for the pleasure of the

leaves and the clouds, or at least

a ring with a gleaming

stone for your finger; yesterday

I watched a mother choose

exquisite ear-ornaments for someone

beloved, in the spring

of her life; they were

for her for sure, but also it seemed

a promise, a love-message, a commitment

to all girls, and boys too, so

beautiful and hopeful in this hard world

and young.

-Mary Oliver