Blog - Wednesday Poems

(posted on 8 May 2024)

Today’s poem comes from my book, Suddenly, So Much (Exile Editions);
the accompanying image is my painting, Watering Can (mixed media).

Appalachian Spring (Aaron Copland, 1944)

Because the wars are not over yet, and yet

these notes unfold

leaf

and bud in the sun because this

is what comes of bowing strings and breathing

into reeds and what breaks

the sky

is dawn not bombs because

a ballet begins with a long sliver of sound

the piano

laughs, woodwinds scamper in the grass

with violins my fingers

sprout green shoots

and my shuttered heart opens

Copland’s Appalachian Spring is one of my favourite
pieces of music, and I play it often at this time of year.
Originally composed to accompany the ballet
choreographed by Martha Graham, Copland later
arranged it as an orchestral suite. Created near the end
of WW II, the ballet celebrates the marriage of a young
frontier couple looking ahead to a promising future.