“Welcome, Spring!”

At Anne Spencer Garden

“A lover muses
Flame-flower, Day-torch, Mauna Loa,
I saw a daring bee, today, pause, and soar,
Into your flaming heart;
Then did I hear crisp crinkled laughter
As the furies after tore him apart?
A bird, next, small and humming,
Looked into your startled depths and fled….
Surely, some dread sight, and dafter
Than human eyes as mine can see,
Set the stricken air waves drumming
In his flight.”
—Excerpt from “Lines to a Nasturtium”

Words By Anne Spencer
Photo by Jim Pile for Lynchburg Living