It’s January and I am tired of the cold outside and the snowflakes drifting by my window already. It was nice for a moment but now that the holidays are gone, I am ready for the spring. I blame this on the lack of holidays in January (not unless you like Berchtold Day, I guess). This month has no cheer.

As such, I found this poem by Clark Ashton Smith that reminded me of the first greens we sometimes find when it’s a little too early for them to be sprouting from the trees or poking their heads up from the snow.

It gave me a little life, and I hope it gives you a little, too.

“A Live-Oak Leaf” by Clark Ashton Smith

How marvellous this bit of green
I hold, and soon shall throw away!
Its subtle veins, its vivid sheen,
Seem fragment of a god’s array.

In all the hidden toil of earth,
Which is the more laborious part –
To rear the oak’s enormous girth,
Or shape its leaves with poignant art?