Today marks the beginning of National Poetry Month. Last year I did a Poetry Month series here on the blog, posting a poem each day. It wasn’t always easy. Poems are protected by the same copyright laws that apply to other written works. To share a complete poem here, it has to be in the public domain or I need to link to a site that has permission to publish it. Yet all the research made me dig deeper into the world of poetry, leading me to discover new poets. I’m sure the discovery will continue this time around. To read about my inspiration for a Poetry Month series, check out this post. (And for a list of last year’s poems, click here.)

I took an unplanned hiatus from the blog these past few weeks. I enrolled in a local writers’ workshop and all of my writing time has been spent writing essays and critiquing my classmates’ work. (If you’re a writer, consider this a commercial for joining a writing group or taking a class. Nothing will refine your writing like thoughtful, honest critique from other writers.) The class ended this week so shifting gears into a different genre for a while will be a nice change. And now, on to today’s poem.

Spring is like a perhaps hand
by e.e. cummings

III
Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere) arranging
a window, into which people look (while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here) and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things, while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and

without breaking anything.