Earth Day: Wild in love with the planet we've got

The frogs are singing loudly now from the ditches, dugouts, and sloughs, the ducks -- especially the goldeneyes -- are pairing up, the grass is greening, gophers are running about, hawks swoop around overhead, and the prairie crocuses are up.

I missed Poetry Friday again -- too many visitors here and places to be there. We had our mandated semi-annual home school facilitator visit (who last time told us, "I can see there's a lot of learning going on in this house," one reason I like him so very much), art lessons, cleaned our not-so little pioneer heritage museum, closed up since last fall, went to a working ranch horse sale where Davy was disgusted to leave without buying another horse, and worked on halter-breaking Laura's 4H calf.

But in time for Earth Day, here is yet another poem from Frances Frost's The Little Naturalist, 1959:

Valentine for Earth
by Frances Frost (1905-1959)

Oh, it will be fine
To rocket through space
And see the reverse
Of the moon's dark face,

To travel to Saturn
Or Venus or Mars,
Or maybe discover
Some uncharted stars.

But do they have anything
Better than we?
Do you think, for instance,
They have a blue sea

For sailing and swimming?
Do the planets hills
With raspberry thickets
Where a song sparrow fills

The summer with music?
And do they have snow
To silver the roads
Where the school buses go?

Oh, I'm all for rockets
And worlds cold or hot,
But I'm wild in love
With the planet we've got!