The Twelve Moons of the Year. May (01)

Significant sentences from The Twelve Moons of the Year by Hal Borland, a chronology of the New England seasons.

"April is promises and tentative beginnings, but May is achievement." p. 120.

"May is apple blossoms and lilacs, and if any other month can surpass that combination we have yet to learn its name." p. 120.

"Lawns grow like mad in May, and the song of the mower is heard throughout the land." p. 120.

"But in May you can go outdoors, out where there are trees and grass and open sky and wild flowers and wild birds, and know without asking that you are in the midst of truth...; don't even have to define it, because it is there, obvious." p. 122.

"May in the country...is natural force as simple as the opening of a bud and as complex as the vast spread of chlorophyll in the countless leaves, even in the infinite blades of grass." p. 125.

"May is life after dormancy, irrepressible life." p. 125.

"The bluet is a blossom of no particular consequence individually...but bluets grow in vast numbers in old pastures and on stony hillsides...; some call them Quaker-ladies and some know them as Innocence...; by June they will be lost among the buttercups and early daisies...; in early May they are beautiful and insistent by their very numbers...bright embroidery on the first green frock of the rural countryside." p. 126.

"The thrasher...will spend hours in a tall treetop proclaiming the goodness of life." p. 127.

"Don't let anyone tell you that the purpose of an apple tree is to grow apples...; their reason for being is to achieve a special glory of blossom." p. 127.

All the best. RayS.