Poetry Archives

News of the Gold World of May in Holland Michigan:
“Wooden shoes will clatter again
       on freshly scrubbed streets—”

The tulip will arise and reign again from awnings and
    windows
           of all colors and forms
           its vine, verve and valentine curves

           upon the city streets, the public grounds
                        and private lawns
           (wherever it is conceivable
           that a bulb might take root
                        and the two lips, softly curved, come up
           possessed by the skilled love and will of a ballerina.)

The citizens will dance in folk dances.
           They will thump, they will pump,
           thudding and shoving
           elbow and thigh,
           bumping and laughing, like barrels and bells.

Vast fields of tulips in full bloom,
           the reproduction of a miniature Dutch village,
           part of a gigantic flower show.