Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day!*
by Patricia | 3.20.09In honor of spring’s arrival, Wilderness Interface Zone will over the next two weeks post poems celebrating the arrival of “the boyhood of the year” (Tennyson).
If you have a favorite poem about spring or one in which spring figures prominently or have written one that fits WIZ’s themes and content, e-mail it to us at wilderness@motleyvision.org. Please review our submissions guide before submitting.
*From “A Prayer in Spring” by Robert Frost
March 25th, 2009 at 11:56 am
While out walking today, I thought of a name for this event. For as long as Wilderness Interface Zone shall last, the poetry will flow liberally, beginning spring’s first day and for two weeks thereafter.
I hereby dub this here celebration of spring’s arrival: WIZ’s Spring Poetry Runoff.
Like it?
March 25th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Also, we’ll wind up WIZ’s Spring Poetry Runoff on April 3rd. So if you’re playing with the idea of submitting something, that’s your deadline.
Many thanks to those who have submitted poems so far!
March 25th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
I like it. But have nothing to add. I’m more of a fall poetry person than a spring one. Probably has to do something with suffering from seasonal allergies.
March 25th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
add = submit
March 26th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Probably has to do something with suffering from seasonal allergies.
I guess for some, March and April are the cruellest months.
March 26th, 2009 at 11:31 am
That’s the beauty of Minnesota. When Winter extends in to April and Summer starts the third week of May, you end up with less than a month of Spring.
It snowed yesterday. Freezing, flaky, lovely, non-allergenic snow.
March 26th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I have one that I like by someone other than me. I assume that you guys have figured out the copyright rules for something like that, right? Can you put a poem in its entirety, from a published book, on the internet?
March 26th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Figured out copyright details? Copyright is something of a fog (that comes on little cat’s feet–or maybe it’s a tyger, tyger, burning bright).
I’m using poems from before 1923, like the Dickinson poem. That’s pretty safe.
Anything from before 1964, like the Lawrence poem, is probably safe, especially if it has been reproduced widely on the Web, which is where I found it. Of course, if something is widely reproduced on the Internet, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s public domain. If someone contacts me to protest copyright violation on the Lawrence poem, I’ll take it down immediatley.
On the newer poems, the authors hold publication rights, so I’ve reproduced those with author permission, citing the publication where they were first published, as some journals request and others require.
Also, just because someone tells you something is copyrighted, that doesn’t mean it necessarily is. You might have to do some online finger- or legwork to find out.
If the poem you have in mind falls outside of the “safe-to-marginally-safe” zone I’ve laid out above, then it’s probably best not to reproduce it without author or publisher consent.
We deal with copyright issues for our home business, so we have some sense for what flies and what doesn’t.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Darlene, you don’t have anything of your own you’re willing to sacrifice during our poetic rite of spring?