Have you been outside lately? It's Spring! We're pretty sure it's here to stay this time!

And with spring comes renewal, and growth, and, yes, more work when it comes to farming and gardening. But that, too, can be a blessing, and an impetus for poetry.

So, for today's Poetry Friday entry, we celebrate the season and the work that goes with it with Yvonne Trainer's "Planting" (from her collection Everything Happens At Once).

Now, don't waste the season away. Go plant something, and let it grow. 

Planting

This morning the veins swelled in my arms
purple as alfalfa flowers

If you pry my fingers open
I will show you blisters

Gripping the tractor-wheel hurt
but the planting was a pleasure

As for the stiffness
it will fade

and think of the green
the cutting baling hauling

the machines waiting in a row
neat as knuckles

Remember last year
when we hauled bales

the binder-twine burnt like fire
through our gloves

That evening at the movie
we dared not tell each other

how much it hurt
to hold hands.