Portside

Days of mist complete the season.
I move the clock ahead one hour
and find myself in a state of grace
that knows no freeze.

All winter, nothing important has died.

Hours before the equinox,
not a leaf whispers. Even unruly
ravens are at peace. The world waits
for the axis to turn.

With spring comes responsibility,
an impulse to affirm, to seed
our little clump, to leave
something of us behind.

Peter Neil Carroll, poet, activist and historian, died last year after a short illness at the age of 80. He was one of the key individuals involved in founding the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, and also the long-time poetry moderator at Portside. From The Truth Lies on Earth: A Year by Dark, by Bright from Turning Point Books.