Tag Archives: spring

Be Neither Silent Nor Still

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winter skyIn the past few weeks, the silent landscape of winter has shifted into a vibrant chorus of bird song as the winged ones return and begin to court and nest. The spring equinox has passed, and though winter lingers on, each day grows longer and brighter – light is returning to the world. A time of renewal in the earth also seems the time to renew one’s spirit.

Ten years ago, I composed a set of pieces for the 125th Anniversary of Duquesne University entitled “The Trees of Righteousness.” The text, taken from the biblical sources of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the Psalms, explored the sense of being called to a purpose in the world.  The second movement, “Be Neither Silent Nor Still” always comes to my mind during Lent and Holy Week.  It is about the dark night of the soul, about searching for light as well as a cry for compassion and justice. As we emerge from the long dark nights of winter, the song reminds me that this is a universal experience of being a human on the earth, regardless of one’s religious or spiritual beliefs. It was written for my dear friend and colleague Guenko Guechev, whose magnificent voice you will hear on the recording. May you find renewal of the heart, mind and spirit this spring.   

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Be Neither Silent Nor Still from “The Trees of Righteousness” music by Lynn Emberg Purse,  @2003

O God, be neither silent nor still.

I look for the light but all is darkness
I look for the light, the light of dawn, but I walk in shadow.
I reach out like a blind man, a blind man along a wall
waiting for justice, for justice, and there is none.

O God, be neither silent nor still.

The wretched and the poor look for water and find none.
Their tongues are parched with thirst, parched with thirst.
Will you not turn the wilderness into pools
and dry land into springs of water?

O God, be neither silent nor still.

Give me a new heart, give me a new heart and
put a new spirit within me.
Take the heart of stone from my body, the heart of stone
and give me a heart of flesh, of flesh,
a new spirit within me.

O God, be neither silent nor still,

Primavera

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Primavera, the Italian word for springtime, is also the name of Botticelli’s famous painting. I was privileged to see the original in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, and stood before it for hours, entranced by its beauty. There are over 500 identified plant species depicted in the painting, including 190 different flowers.Botticelli Primavera

Flora Primavera

Detail of Flora

As I write this, the earth shifts into the vernal equinox, the time when there is an equal number of hours of light and dark all over the earth, and the official start of spring for the northern hemisphere. I’ve been dreaming of light in dark places lately, even of singing of light in those places. Without light, we cannot see color and it is color that is promised by the arrival of spring.  As in Botticelli’s depiction of Flora scattering flowers on the earth, the vernal equinox signals a shift in the turning of the earth to more light and new growth.  Happy springtime!

Images of Primavera courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

I Will Be the Gladdest Thing

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I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one. ~Edna St. Vincent Millay

pink foxglovesI touched more than a hundred flowers last weekend, though with my eyes, and I didn’t pick one, except perhaps with my camera. Going to a large flower show in late winter is always a delight for winter weary senses.  Never mind the artificiality of plants forced into early growth and assembled in great halls to mimic a garden – there they are, to be seen and smelled and enjoyed.  I spent a day at the famed Philadelphia Flower Show and my senses are still reeling. It took the better part of the day to see most of the exhibit – this year’s theme was “Brilliant!” – an ode to British gardening style. Any large flower show, in the U.S. at least, is an opportunity for the green industry to strut their artistic stuff – that includes garden designers, florists, plant specialists, and various other vendors. Walk along with me through the show to sample a few of the gardens and flowers.

Living on a wooded lot in which I am trying to expand the native habitat, I was drawn to the naturalistic garden displays. I looked for the treetops in this great hall, which led me to various woodland scenes, complete with small buildings, shade plantings, and open areas filled with flowers. I found myself visiting these displays more than once, especially one that I call the “Greenhouse Garden” created by Hunter Hayes Landscape Design, a specialist in ecological designs.  Frankly, I wanted to move into this place and never leave. (Click on any photo to trigger the photo gallery viewer, click on X to close gallery)

Greenhouse garden by Hunter Hayes
Greenhouse courtyard garden
Greenhouse water pump
Pink astilbes in Greenhouse garden
Tiarellas in greenhouse garden
Tranquility woodland garden by Romano’s Landscaping
Tranquility garden path
Lupines by cabin
Woodland garden

The British garden theme “Brilliant!” was carried out in many exhibits, both in gardens and floral displays. It was interesting to see how Philadelphia area companies interpreted the English garden and floral look.  “The Scorer’s Garden” by J. Downend Landscaping featured a pink and blue cottage style garden full of roses, snapdragons and salvias. “Hidcote Holiday” was a large garden construction by Stoney Bank Nurseries with many lovely components, culminating in a gated garden view that had visitors lining up to take their photos. The floral displays were no less extravagant.  My favorite was “A Proper Hodgepodge” by Robertson’s Flowers that featured “stylistically iconic time periods” ranging from a 1960’s Mod Gala to a lavish Medieval Feast. (visit their blog to see more photos of this spectacular exhibit)

Hidcote Holiday gate
The scorer at the Downend Cricket Club
The Scorer’s Garden
Pink Knockout Roses
Hidcote Holiday garden fish
Hidcote Holiday side entry
Hodgepodge 60’s Mod Gala
Hodgepodge Storybook Wedding
Hodgepodge Medieval Feast

Sometimes it was just about the flowers. The Raymond Evison Clematis display featured his spectacular clematis – I put “Parisienne” on my “must get” list. The Netherlands American Business Association featured Dutch bulbs in colorful combinations and throughout the show, home growers competed for best displays of forced bulbs, including lovely groups of colorful daffodils.

Clematis ‘Fleuri’
Clematis ‘Parisienne’
Clematis ‘Cherokee’ & ‘Amethyst Beauty’
Pitcher plant flower
Netherlands bulb display
Daffodils in competition
‘Chromacolor’ daffodils
White roses
Sunflower

Not only were visitors dazzled by the colors and scents, they were educated as well. Organic Mechanics potting soil display cleverly touted their product while educating consumers on eco-sensitive potting mixtures and the beauty of growing herbs and veggies. The Pennsylvania Horticulture Society featured a spectacular wall of brassicas anchored by a clever wheelbarrow sculpture on one side and a hanging garden of glass birdfeeders and cottage garden flowers on the other. Many schools contributed attractive and educational displays; the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades featured a vegetable kitchen garden based on 18th Century Horticulture practices in America.

Organic Mechanics educates us
PHS Wall of brassicas
PHS Hanging gardens
18th Century vegetable garden

I hope you enjoyed visiting the Philadelphia Flower Show 2013 with me.  Think spring!

In My Dreams

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In my dreams, I’m not bound to walk beneath the earth.
In my dreams, my guardian will return and lend his wings,
his wings to carry me aloft, his wings to carry me,
a lost and lonely child, alone in the dark
~ from “In My Dreams/Thumbelina’s Lament” by Lynn Emberg Purse ©2008

ThumbelinaThis morning, the sun returned.  What a powerful experience, after days of gray skies and waves of snow, freezing rain, and ice. The myth of Persephone, the queen of the underworld who is allowed to return aboveground in the spring and summer, is on my mind these days.  Even as I start seeds for this year’s garden, I have been working on a musical based on the fairy tale of Thumbelina, a variant of the Persephone myth. I have always loved this tale, especially since Thumbelina’s good deed of saving the swallow who falls underground earns her a pair of wings and the gift of spending the rest of her life aboveground, living in a flower.  But before that happens, she must go through her own “dark night of the soul” – living underground for the winter and being promised in marriage to Mr. Mole, a wealthy character who will never let her go above ground again. In the spring, the swallow returns to rescue her and flies her to a garden.

The Persephone myth is a reflection of the rhythm of the seasons, from the hibernation of winter to the blossoming of spring, but from a psychological view, it is more than that.  The journey “underground” is often compared to the “dark night of the soul” that many have experienced, a time of living underground in one’s psyche while experiencing doubt and despair, but eventually returning to sunlight.  In a similar vein, the Hero’s Journey was explored in depth by Joseph Campbell and brought into popular consciousness. The mythical journey of the reluctant hero surviving chaos and danger in order to retrieve something of worth is a constant source of story for books and films.  Last night’s Oscar winning film, Argo, is a perfect example of a story that never loses its power.

BlackOrpheusposterAnother variant on this theme is that of Orpheus, who could charm the stones with his music and who descended into the underworld to retrieve his wife Eurydice. Perhaps you remember the 1959 film Black Orpheus – filmed in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus – and the beautiful song of the same name written by Luis Bonfa. An adaptation of the Orpheus myth set in Rio de Janeiro and featuring samba and bossa nova music, the movie won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.


butterfly and flowersIt is late February and spring is around the corner. The treetops are turning red with the rising sap, bulbs are rising from the earth, and I can feel the sunlight on my face. I’m ready to emerge from the underground and spend the rest of the season living in a flower.

In my dreams, I feel sunlight on my face.
In my dreams, I have found another place,
a place where color and light have blended just right
into a rose, a flower, a bloom, a place to call home
Where I can live and be me, be free.
A place where the swallow can go, a place that I know,
a place in my dreams.
~ from “In My Dreams/Thumbelina’s Lament” by Lynn Emberg Purse ©2008

Signs of Spring

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I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright. ~ Millard Kaufman

The onslaught of the freeze thaw cycle is upon us. We have shifted from bitter cold and heavy snow to balmy sunny days twice in the past four weeks. This morning, in the midst of a short lived thaw, I discovered snow drops blooming and hellebores in full bud.  Signs of spring are everywhere, from the green snouts of daffodils poking into the world to buds swelling on the cherry tree. A promise of what is to come.

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