Nones Sonnet (February)
Fair morning framed by breezes in branches,
twitters of dilettante sparrows and wrens,
and high-wire gatherings of finches:
are fox-cubs sleeping by mothers, in dens?
Where does chipmunk sleep away winter’s lot?
Does mole begin planning his tunneling?
So many questions that autumn forgot
to ask, when fall’s crimson unravelling
began, are answered now with spring’s omens:
mud squishing underfoot, and ducks on lake.
Yet jack-in-pulpit still speaks no sermons;
Gé’s little preacher is not yet awake.
Cold wind brings clouds, bites through cotton and wool;
covers at sunset, Orion and Bull.
[…] Nones of February Sonnet: I wrote this sonnet in 2005, as a poetry exercise and as part of my investigation of the cycles of the natural world. The Nones (5th or 7th day of the month, in the Roman calendar) of February in 2005 was a lot less cold and miserable than the Ides of February will be this coming week. […]