"Jubilation is My Name": Spring in Minnesota

I share this evening some photos I’ve taken over the past month or so - usually when I’ve been out riding my bike.

These images are accompanied by a beautiful poem by Gertrud Von Le Fort. Enjoy!

Jubilation is my name
and rejoicing is my countenance.

I am like a young meadow wreathed in dawn,
like a shepherd’s pipe among the hills.
Hear me, you swelling valleys.
Hear me, you waving meadows.
Hear me, you happy songful forests.

For I am no longer lonely among your splendors,
I have become your brother and one of your kin.
Greet me, fair likeness of myself,
Glad earth that Love has fulfilled.

Nearness is still far,
Grace is yet but a forward step.
You are in me as eternally mine.

You have come over me
as buds come upon a spray.
You have sprung forth in me
like roses in the hedgerows.

I bloom in the red-thorn of this love.
I bloom on all my branches
in the purple of these gifts.

I bloom with fiery tongues,
I bloom with flaming fulfillment,
I bloom out of the Holy Spirit of God.

“Hymns to the Church”
Gertrud Von Le Fort

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Spring in Minnesota (2007)
A Springtime Visitor
In the Footsteps of Spring