A Wild Wind of Spring

My Love, stand fast now and grip hard to the smooth handle of life; wrap your warm

Coat a little tighter against the wind and snow and bank the fire against the cold.

For yet a little while longer we must hold tightly to our hard places among the rocks

And speak our defiance into the dark of nights; for yet a little longer we must sweep away

The bitter tears and take up the axe and strike hard our blows apart, but never alone.

For though now is the time of the hard things, the time of the rough and vicious things,

This time will soon melt away like frost in the bright morning light and pass away forever.

And I will soon come leaping and bounding up the laneway like a wild wind of spring,

Dancing among the naked trees to scatter, like dead leaves, the wolves that snap at your heels.

I will put the kiss of summer upon your lips and cheeks and make again the color

Of sunlight to dance upon your eyes and in your heart. I will rip away the covers of sadness

That blanketed the night and rise up early to greet the day in the fire of our hearts.

In the strength of these hands and strong bodies we will bind up that which was broken,

Strengthen that which was weak, for beyond all hope, having found that which was lost

In the depths of time and earth and sea that stretched between us, our hands have found

Each other’s in the night. What dark or terrible thing should we dread? What challenge? What fear?

For I have come out of the mouth of that dark forest and found my life in your love in that night.

Having only your heart as my guide, I found you, though all the world stood between.

So what dismay should we hold, you and I, whose hearts called out to one another so strongly

In the darkness that I felt you as a child, running wild and free upon the river banks and stones?

What obstacle will not seem petty and small when I hold you again in the arms of each night

And we kiss away every sadness like fearful shadows fleeing the bright and breaking day?

What treasure will not seem thin and poor compared to the richness of your hands in mine

For a lifetime, your love in my heart to the end of time? For against what scale could I weigh

The measure of our moments against the earth and sea and the galaxies spinning wild

Their wheeling course across the sky? What would I not happily give and count as nothing?

For the precious gift of your love, your heart, your life is coursing in my veins like

A great and powerful river, our lives flowing together within the banks of all time.

For I am gladly bonded in the debt of your love and will spend my life rejoicing in the payment.

Eric M. Petit