NaPoWriMo April (Day 2): Vernality

 
For the month of April, I’m writing a poem a day from prompts on https://www.napowrimo.net. You can click on the headlines (Day One, etc) to view/add comments. There’s also a list of participants’ sites below the site header.

Day 2

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words. Will you choose a word like “aprosexia,” which means “an inability to concentrate”? Or maybe something like “greenout,” which is “the relief a person who has worked or lived in a snowy area for a long time feels on seeing something fresh and green for the first time”? Whatever you choose, happy writing!
 
I chose this tweet of Haggard Hawks:

Word of the Day: VERNALITY (n.) the spring, a spring-like quality; the greenness and freshness of springtime (1600s). Posted 7am, April 2, 2022.

 
Vernality
 
Over a hilltop we rise, sharing words
cast as in a talking game,
rash nonsensical afterthoughts
of truths and departing memories.
The hike takes us through meadows,
a purple lake of pungency. We stake
our claim on our last vestibules.
 
This is where the sky meets the soil,
cleanses it with the wind’s hands.
Every step extends our living roots
beyond the upright stretch of trees,
down into the depths of our mother
earth. We stand on ground trodden
by a hundred others, revisiting and
echoing, sewing spring paths on to
the back of others. A patchwork quilt
of knowledge and exploration,
soaking colour into the damp grass.
 
I can smell green when the breeze blows,
and only it knows where it leads me,
beneath the whispering of the leaves
and the solitary shine of the sun.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 2, 2022