April by John Updike
April as described by John Updike in A Child’s Calendar. In a postcard to me many years ago, he said the poems set out each month in Ipswich, Massachusetts where his home had been across the street from mine on East Street. The poems were penned during a stay in France.
It’s spring! Farewell
To chills and colds!
The blushing, girlish
World unfolds
Each flower, leaf,
And blade of sod—
Small letters sent
To her from God.
The sky’s a herd
Of prancing sheep,
The birds and fields
Abandon sleep,
And jonquils, tulips,
Daffodils
Bloom bright upon
The wide-eyed hills.
All things renew.
All things begin.
At church, they bring
The lilies in.
A Child’s Calendar (1965)
