The Goose-Girl

There were robins in my front yard this morning! Robins! Spring is my favorite time of the year. And it arrives next Wednesday at 12:o7 AM (GMT). For my Welsh kindred--the Spring Equinox, Gwyl Canol Gwen Wynol, or Eostre (pronounced E-ostra) is the time of equal day and equal night. But you already knew that, didn't you? Night and day are in perfect balance, with the powers of light on the ascendancy. But I'll bet you didn't know that in the Welsh Mabinogion, the first day of spring was when Llew (the god of light) takes his vengeance on Goronwy (his evil twin, the god of darkness) and pierces him with a spear of sunlight!

This is the season of the year when we celebrate life over death. The crocus, the daffodils, and the tulips are showing up. The robins and other birds will be building their nests. Maybe they'll line them with the long soft hair cuttings I put out for them yesterday, after I shaved my son's head. I used to do that when I cut my grandsons hair--we put their hair-cuttings in a box up in the tree. Woven into the nest, it would be a warm, soft place for the babies to grow up.


Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote one of my favorite poems about spring, The Goose-Girl:

Spring rides no horses down the hill,
But comes on foot, a goose-girl still.
And all the loveliest things there be
Come simply, so, it seems to me.
If ever I said, in grief or pride,
I tired of honest things, I lied;
And should be cursed forevermore
With Love in laces, like a whore,
And neighbors cold, and friends unsteady,
And Spring on horseback, like a lady!

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