March Poetry ~ Snowdrops

Exactly one year ago I was surprised to see a cluster of tiny white snowdrops blooming right through a patch of icy snow by the side of our house.  If you remember, a year ago news of the war in Ukraine was just a couple of weeks old. The tenacity of those fragile white flowers inspired me to write this poem.

“With the Strength of Snowdrops”
by Alicia Woodward

Snowdrops pierce through frozen ground
Amid fiery blasts and artillery rounds

Tiny flowers so brave and bright
Show strength in their tenacious fight

Eager blossoms unfurl with glee
Like a flag flying free

Beauty and promise spring after spring
Despite despair the season brings

While man may sow hate and strife
Nature blooms with hope and life 

I’m glad I didn’t know then that the war would still be raging one year later.

Or that so many of our country’s problems would still be unresolved.

Or that my own challenges would still be looming large.

We humans sure know how to make a mess of things, don’t we? But God, God stays strong. While we weakly stumble through our days, he lovingly offers us encouraging symbols of strength. God stays faithful, too. Even though we did nothing to deserve it, the snowdrops bloomed again this year. I’m still amazed by their strength, but today I’m struck by their humility. I notice how the flower humbly hangs its head, as if bowing down in prayer. §

“Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring
And pensive monitor of fleeting years.”
~William Wordsworth, To a Snowdrop