Craig W. Steele

There is no season such delight can bring
As summer, autumn, winter and the spring
William Browne, Variety, 1630

Noon shadows shift as drooping leaves
begin to sway in sweating trees
that bask beneath the summer sun,
as heat retreats from cooling breeze.

When green life fades from wrinkled leaves,
an earthbound sunset springs full-born
as red-gold haze surrounds most trees
and glows with life in autumn’s morn.

Now summer’s days are yet long gone,
and autumn leaves still freely fall.
The weather’s getting colder still,
and living things don’t grow at all.

Then winter strikes with howling force
of windswept blizzards, drifting snow,
and Earth will soon be cloaked in white
once more, while sharp icicles grow.

But springtime lies not far ahead
with blazing blossoms, sweet and new;
soon warming rains will fill the air,
and melt the snow to glistening dew.

“Now spring is here, at last!” we’ll cheer,
as Earth’s awash with fragrant blooms
amid a greening tapestry
that grows anew from Nature’s looms.

We’ll come full circle one more year,
each season’s time yet come and gone,
but as the cycle starts again,
their special memories linger on.