Too often when the clouds have come
to bring their storms and gushing rain
I seek that world of childhood days
the faerie orchards of my brain

Where skies are painted cobalt blue.
and pears grow thickly all the year
Where southern winds blow cool and sweet
for climes are ever clement here

But winter days are over now
I stumble, tired-eyed, from the dark
towards the misty morning light
the sleepy kingdom of the lark

Like buds my waking eyes unfurl
I smell the honey on the air
As petals flutter from the trees
around my head and on my hair

My nerves, as roots in frozen soil,
have broken from their sheaths of ice
And now I view with heightened joy
spring's flowery bird-filled paradise

And in the trees it is as if
I find on every slender twig
A twittering finch, a lemon or
a fragrant cherry blossom sprig

Cool as a deity I roam
this airy temple of the Spring
Before the savage summer heat
starts setting fire to everything.