By CARLA OFFENBURGER
COOPER, Iowa, March 11, 2014 — When the winter weather starts to break every year, I always think back to a poem I learned about 40 years ago from Lillian Hildreth, my English teacher at Lincoln High School in Des Moines. She had the poem written on her blackboard. I memorized it, and recite it every spring.
Daffodils and tulips
impatient underground
in March sent up a crocus
to have a look around.
She yelled, “It still is winter,
there is frost on everything.”
But a passerby who saw her said,
“A crocus! It is spring!”
I hope we are seeing them soon!
You can write the columnist at carla@Offenburger.com or comment using the handy form below here.
Hi Carla and Chuck,
I like the poem very much and will commit it to memory myself. My dad memorized many poems and recited them to me on mushroom hunts and ice fishing jaunts. After he died, I memorized many in his memory — writing them on small papers that I would carry as I jogged each morning before heading to Clarinda to teach middle school English.
I hope to see you two on a ride sometime this summer.
Jane Connell, Shenandoah IA
Does anyone know the original author of this poem?
Rebecca Benner, Galesburg, IL