Poetry Sunday: Late Spring by Judith Wright

I met a new poet this week. Her name was Judith Wright. She is no longer with us, having died almost two years ago, but her poetry lives on. She was an Australian and a devoted environmentalist and social activist who campaigned for Aboriginal land rights.

Her poems that I read were replete with references to the environment, revealing her familiarity and concern for issues affecting it. I particularly liked the following poem which gives us images of a pear tree that had fallen in a storm but still sends out its blossoms as "obstinate tokens" of life in spring. I hope you like it, too.   

Late Spring

by Judith Wright

The moon drained white by day
lifts from the hill
where the old pear-tree fallen in storm
springs up in blossom still.
Women believe in the moon:
this branch I hold
is not more white and still than she
whose flower is ages old,
and so I carry home
flowers from the pear
that makes such obstinate tokens still
for fruit it cannot bear.