1. Where is Spring? I asked but found
None to answer except rain pouring down

2. As if it had lived in fantasies and thoughts
And was absent when time came around

3. They said atoms burst forth
Scattering the sky’s order, high and low

4. So Spring became Autumn, as if
Drenched in rain and pressed grapes’ overflow

5. Lightning spoke like nuclear
Bombs, exchanging fire in the air

6. So its birds took cover and its flowers
Veiled themselves, while the stream wept there

7. And I wept within, as one who’s lost
Family and friends once gathered dear

8. When stillness anchored, I thought it but
Restlessness and warning drawing near

9. Where is gentleness and calm befriended?
Safety appealed to searching eyes

10. Where is beauty in its dance and play
Most exquisite of the lights that rise?

11. Where are maidens whom bees collect
Like a banker drawing honey and scent?

12. Where are blossoms I so ardently
Pursued unveiled to sight’s content?

13. Where are meadows once arrayed as brides
Like a dream’s brides in days of March?

14. Where are birds whose nests were left incomplete
With secrets and with love's faint touch?

15. All vanished like phantoms when they wane
And music above fingers on the strings

16. Dream of them, O heart, or forget them
For all the Spring once gave had wings

17. The year knew not life but as a sense
Death shrouded in pretend and guise

18. From a dead generosity I awaited
Naught but stumbling of fortunes and chance

19. Another year tomorrow I’ll begin
Jubilant as a rose in May

20. If my old homeland spurned me, still
Love of country my creed and way

21. Or if Spring abandoned me, its deeds
Mirrored what I recalled with pain

22. I will remain, looking to its affection
Until it returns from travels again

23. Perhaps a messenger of love will come
From Egypt, after absence and joy

24. And I will see gardens in him flourishing
As my songs pour out song’s deploy