Spring Comes Singing like a Troubadour by Martin Jones

June 29, 2023
Poem title: Spring Comes Singing like a Troubadour Poet name: Martin Jones Poem: “I swear,” say two who know me well, “when the angels were handing out ‘patience,’ you were lounging behind this shed, drinking Scotch and daydreaming.” Well, they are right about the garden shed, for it is a fine place to greet the spring as it billows in from the west and illuminates the fields in freshly laundered light. And note too how the spring wind announces itself -- less like a king and more like a troubadour, strumming and singing a perennial tune, a melody we ache for through all the months that are not the spring. And as for a certain lack of patience – and here I’m putting it mildly, for I have as much aptitude for patience as I have for diesel mechanics or the flying trapeze, i.e., none at all, though now I am merely adrift in my thoughts, for spring does this to folks on stray afternoons in April, out here behind the garden shed, a bottle of Famous Grouse on the grass and all concerns abandoned to another day, enlivened by a warmth no soul has known for months and thus what fault is impatience in this land of oppressive winter, for today spring is dancing a jig on the breeze and a melody is blowing our hearts clean apart. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Martin Jones Martin Jones is a Toronto-based writer and poet and the author of two books, the slow knot of time, a collection of poetry published in 2021 and The Gentleman Lion and Other Stories, a short story collection published in 2022. A second collection of poetry, tentatively titled Arc of the Sun is due for publication in the fall of 2023. He is poet of primarily lyrical and narrative verse. About the slow knot of time, a reviewer wrote: “The lines are marked by attention to detail with moments of exaltation, dreams, fragility, Cadillacs, fate... The poems invoke place or travel like poetry. It’s almost like going on a journey when turning the pages.” He is a former winner of the McIlquam Scholarship for Creative Writing at Queen’s University, Kingston.