The James Hearst Digital Archive

Home » Poetry » Spring On The Farm

Spring On The Farm

Text of Poem

The mixed emotions which I hold this spring
Grow from the farm’s offense
Of tracking muddy footprints where the inward eye
Supposes dreams but finds that common sense

Will be more use to me out in the slush,
The wet March cold,
Where I hang my breathy wreaths of flowering sweat,
Trying to get the mare inside before her colt is foaled.

I know the sap is running, the maple trunks
Shine black as mud
Where I am spreading straw to give her footing
And get her to the barn, like all flesh and blood.

I’m a fool in some ways, but I know that spring
Comes down to this:
For me, O Lord, the chores, always the chores of birth,
Calves, pigs and colts, with kittens on their own
And chickens in my lap as frost heaves from the earth
And skies drip down, and patience and pain are sisters.
I gawk in relief at a rippling wedge of geese—
The farm isn’t always like this but today it is.

First Line
The mixed emotions which I hold this spring
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
1957
Original Citation
Canadian Poetry Magazine 20 (Summer 1957) 15.
Republication
Complete Poems
129
Hearst Collections
Word Count
171
Poetic Form
closed
Themes
Twitter Quote
I know the sap is running, the maple trunks / Shine black as mud