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Readers share their Spring Poems If you would like to share your poetry please email your submissions to Nicola@CapeWomenOnline.com

Crows

by Kathleen Geagan Ryan

They mate for life,
dote on their offspring,
socialize.

When one of them dies,
they gather on branches above where the body lies.
Without calls or songs to sing

they wait

without warning, they arise.
A sudden, soundless flurry
black wings fill the sky.

Kathleen Geagan Ryan is a psychiatric nurse turned writer/wedding celebrant. In the language of archetypes she is a caregiver turned visionary artist. She lives with her husband in Brewster.

Cape Cod Spring Lament

by Annie Krohe

Yea, it is spring. At least it felt that way a week or so ago. The sun was
out, I swear. I saw it more than once. It's been grey, wet, soggy, damp
and dank. When I go out, I wear rain gear and muck boots. Water is
everywhere. The temperature is on the cool side. Flowers stand still in
the ground. And, if you were anxious and planted tomatoes, well…

They're doing nothing but standing still.

I have a good friend who says, "Ah, this is the perfect weather. I could
live with this all summer." I feel like punching him, but don't. I quickly
remind him that if we lived off the land, we would starve to death. I just
want the sun to shine enough so the veggies and flowers grow. It was a
long winter and it feels so unfair. But wait!

Looking up, I glance through the window.

There's the sun.

I saw it.

I swear it.

I really did.

Annie Krohe is an artist who lives in Eastham.

Poem

by Donna Ritvo

I learned to track rabbits this week.
Prints in the frozen sand as if an apparition, here, now gone.
I wondered what creatures had passed and paused.

Looking down, instead of up, I learned something new.
The pulse and push of life mapped out.
If you take your time and simply look.

Our guide explained the ways of survival.
Wildlife copes in three ways:
migrate
hibernate
tolerate

And isn't that true of us as well; doing all three in an effort to cope.
And with the unfolding of Spring we emerge –
hopeful and full of purpose.

Rabbit prints in the sand.
There's a lesson in that.

Donna lives in Brewster and, with her partners, runs AT HOME AGAIN a quality home furnishings consignment store in Chatham.

Destination: Peace on Earth

by Linda Ohlson Graham

There could be someone
On the bow of our boat …
Our boat is our Planet : Earth.
The landfall that is being pursued: Peace.

Planet Earth appears to be going thru Hell.
War … destruction … poverty … starvation …
Only begins the list of horror.

Is it time to enter thE next thousand year cycle …
An age foretold
With peace and light and beauty …?

YES!

Linda Ohlson Graham is a member in both arts and letters of the National League of American Pen Women, and a member of the International Women's Writing Guild. She currently lives and writes in Wellfleet.Find her online at www.lindaohlsongraham.com and www.earthoceanheavens.com.