Happy Vernal Equinox!

Here’s a poem from last Sunday’s Capturing Wakamatsu workshop. Wakamatsu Farm is one of my favorite local places – ancestral land of Nisenan Maidu, historic home of vintners, 1st Japanese colony in North America, then ranched by the Veerkamps, now part of American River Conservancy. ARC hosts our seasonal poetry walk/workshops; Sunday’s event was our winter observance, Covid-postponed from January. Here’s a poem-report on the farm in March:

Coming Out of Winter

Gray clouds, chilly wind –

pair of vultures wing-tilting overhead –

ducks on the pond too far away to name –

spotted towhee in blackberry bramble –

swifthawk flies low & close, disappears in woods –

shooting-star, buttercup, popcorn flower –

tiny pink bloom of filaree, beloved of sheep –

ceanothus whitethorn in white blossom –

whiteleaf manzanita’s pale pink heather-bells –

white star-flower I can’t identify –

bluebirds swarm over dead star-thistle –

March into spring.

- Taylor Graham