The Wonderful Early Morning Blues
We have noticed the first and early signs of Spring in the air. At last, when we are lucky, we can enjoy a blue sky before we are pushed away into offices and factories or shops. By eight o'clock we can see the blues. After a long dark winter you will forgive me for my romantic feelings with the wonderful early morning blues.
Waking up in the darkest winter times is a pain in the arse. It takes a military discipline to handle. It takes a kind of old fashioned alarm clock to shock us out of bed to get us to work on time. The loud nasty rings of those clocks punish us and get us out of bed through shock-therapy. Those clocks are like a Sgt.Major yelling at us during military training. Some will remember these times well - even when we would prefer to forget them:
”Come on, you orrible lot, wake up. Hands off cocks put on socks”.
”Do you miss your mother, boy? Well I'm your bloody mother now. Wake up”.
Oh dear. The memories of waking up in the dark mornings to a song from a sadistic Sergeant Major or from another old alarm clock. Oh the damned pain. Somehow life can be so cruel as if we really need to get used to waking up in the morning through being hit in the face with an old smelly fish. Luther go back to bed and forget the socks.
The mornings right now are becoming more kindly and more gentle. I hear the birds calling. They ask for their early morning food. They help me wake up in a good mood. They give me a feeling of being useful and they also reward me with their songs. These song-birds are a blessing especially when we can see again an early morning blue sky. Whoever invented blue skies and bird songs should be given a Nobel Prize for peace.
I have been informed by a few energetic ”Greenie Meanie Types” that I should not feed my birds. I am doing harm. I am not allowing the balance of nature to find its way. What can I say to these Sgt.Major alarm clocks? First I can say this. Leave us alone. Those birds can call me anytime they want and they do it in such a beautiful way. One of the wonders of the world, in the early mornings, is the dawn chorus. When the birds all gather up and celebrate a new day through variable songs it is a paradise on earth. And, there are very few of those around.
I also get help from the early morning snow-shoe hare. This giant of a rabbit with snow-shoes loves this time of the year when the snow is hard on the top. They are so active now. Hop along, hop along, hop along. That I say. The snow-shoe hare helps me. I may also try and hop along too and be alert to the new morning light. I have that book to finish. I have that music concert to look forward to. I have a family that gets older and more playful. I have a poetry audio to make if I can. I feel so busy.
Maybe I am trying to say that old alarm clocks and sergeant majors do not turn me on. Maybe I am trying to say that the birds in song and the snow-shoe hare, that springs and jumps along, is better for me. They inspire me. They help.
I feel lucky again.
Steve Bowles
