What the Bird Said Early In The Year

I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:

This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees

This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas.

This year time’s nature will no more defeat you,

Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

This time they will not lead you round and back

To Autumn, one year older, by the well-worn track.

This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,

We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,

Quick, quick, quick, quick! – the gates are drawn apart.

C.S. Lewis

PS - C.S. Lewis had a deep affection for Addison's Walk at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he lived and taught for many years. The place was of profound personal, spiritual, and intellectual significance. It was also a place of beauty and symbolized the interplay of nature, reason, and divine truth, which was central to his life and work.