it is an earth song,
a body song, a spring song,
have been waiting long

It’s an earth song,—
And I’ve been waiting long for an earth song.
It’s a spring song,—
And I’ve been waiting long for a spring song.

Strong as the shoots of a new plant
Strong as the bursting of new buds
Strong as the coming of the first child from its mother’s womb.

It’s an earth song,
A body song,
A spring song,
I have been waiting long for this spring song.

Earth Song as printed in The collected poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes (Knopf, News York, 1994).

Another sign of spring is kite guy on Hilton Head Island.

Shows up the first 2 weeks of May and spends his morning getting these kites into the air and then spends his afternoons taking them down and winding up the cords.

I used to wonder about kite guy’s outlook on life.

Who would spend their vacation flying kites?

I decided that when someone flies kites with the flag of The United States of America AND the flag of the Republic of Ukraine … and a flag with the peace symbol from the Vietnam War era … you can make some assumptions.

I am reminded of the spring concerts at my elementary school back in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

One year must of raised the level of conversation between school and parents when we sang songs like Bob Dylan’s Blowing in the Wind, John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane and S&G’s 59th Street Bridge Song and If I Could (El cóndor pasa).

This would have at the height of the Hippie / Anti War era in America when several of my older brothers and sisters were off in college in Ann Arbor.

Not sure what was said and by who or to who.

But the next spring we sang nothing but songs from Disney and Let’s Go Fly a Kite sticks out as the song my class sang,

For the haiku, I had to edit Mr. Hughes and change it’s to it is to get my 5 – 7 – 5.

Such cheek on my part.

I should go fly a kite.

am I too old to
see the fairies dance – cannot
find them any more …

Now,
In June,
When the night is a vast softness
Filled with blue stars,
And broken shafts of moon-glimmer
Fall upon the earth,
Am I too old to see the fairies dance?
I cannot find them any more.

After Many Springs in the book The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes  (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926).

Went to the beach yesterday and with the tide being high had to walk a bit up the beach to find a place away from the crowds.

The sun was clear and hot and bright and the beach sand burned our toes so we dropped our chairs and ran into the water.

The water was wavy and splashy and cool and we spent most of the afternoon in the surf.

It was nice to be away from the crowd.

We could see them a ways away, lining the beach with their umbrellas and shibumi beach shades flying in the the breeze.

We could see them but with wind and waves, we couldn’t hear them a ways away down the beach.

We stayed in the waves, played in the water.

Time to leave, we packed up and carried our gear back to through the beach crowd and threaded our way to the wooden walkway down to the showers to spray off the sand and salt.

While waiting, we exchanged pleasantries with the crowd and admired the babies.

We asked one Mom, surrounded by sun burned kids, if they had a good beach day?

Mom said “You bet!”

She turned and look at her kids and looked back and said, “Though it was kind of scary when they cleared the water and closed the beach those three times the lifeguard spotted sharks.”

…