The trees say, "It's time to begin afresh."

The fig tree is budding.
The Trees
by Philip Larkin
The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.
Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.
Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
The Collected Poems by Philip Larkin
The trees in my part of the world had a very rough time of it last year. Thousands of them died due to the drought. But now the survivors have had their winter's rest and they are ready to put all of that behind them. The rains have come and the trees have drunk deep. "Last year is dead, they seem to say," and if they could speak, this would probably be their advice to us: The past is dead. Time to "Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
Blueberry buds.

Comments

  1. Wonderful post Dorothy. Our garden is greening up again too. It's wonderful to see it all coming back to life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Spring is like a renewal of faith that things can begin afresh, Jayne. I love it, and Larkin expresses that so well in this poem.

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