Spring, Madison, Wisconsin, 2022

It’s another spring coming that I won’t be back in Madison,
go there to write, my personal writing workshop, a retreat,
where the energy is good and the writing flows.

I’ve been doing this for several years now,
spending five days doing nothing but write all day,
for several years, I should say, up until 2020.

It’s the week of spring break for the students,
when there are still enough students around
to make it feel like that college town I remember.

I love the cold, love to see the buds on tree branches,
the grass and small flowers poking through the last snow,
and a few people who’ve come to know me as a spring break visitor.

Sometimes I wonder, at my age, and the way life is nowadays,
if I’ll ever be able to visit again, in the spring or any other time,
see those same sights and people, and feel the writing flow.