MINSTREL WEATHER 



summer, birds and winds must bear the 

 seed of alpine flowers lilies that lean 

 against unmelting snows, poppies, bright- 

 colored herbs, and the palely gleaming, 

 fringed beauties that change names with 

 countries. How just and reasonable it 

 would seem to be that flowers which edge 

 the ice in July should consent to bloom 

 in lowlands no colder in February! The 

 pageant of blue, magenta, and scarlet on 

 the austere upper slopes of the Rockies, 

 where nights are bitter to the summer 

 wanderer why should it not flourish to 

 leeward of a valley barn in months when 

 icicles hang from the eaves in this tamer 

 setting? But no. Mountain tempests are 

 endurable to the silken-petaled. The 

 treacherous lowland winter, with its coax- 

 ing suns followed by roaring desolation, 

 is for blooms bred in a different tradi- 

 tion. 



The light is clear but hesitant, a delicate 

 wine, by no means the mighty vintage of 

 April. February has no intoxication; the 

 vague eagerness that gives the air a pulse 

 where fields lie voiceless comes from the 

 secret stirring of imprisoned life. Spring 

 and sunrise are forever miracles, but the 



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