W is for Zaro Weil, Children’s Poet and Author, #AtoZChallenge #ZtoA

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Zaro Weil

Zaro Weil lives in an old farm on a little hill in southern France with her husband and two sheepdogs, Spot and Clementine, alongside a host of birds, insects, badgers, wild boars, crickets, donkeys, goats, hares and loads more. She has been a lot of things; dancer, theatre director, actress, poet, playwright, educator, quilt collector and historian, author, publisher to mention a few! Her poetry for children has appeared in many anthologies. She has written several books including a book of children’s poetry, Mud, Moon and Me published by Orchard Books, UK and Houghton Mifflin, USA. Mud Moon and Me can be bought here. Her newest book Firecrackers, Troika, illustrated by Jo Riddell, can be bought here. Zaro’s website is here.

Here is a lovely poem by Zaro:

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THINK OF IT

 

think of it

 

the first shudder of damp

somehow signalled

all was ready

then in the deep inside of earth

in the muted underneath of winter

spring began

 

not with a sudden trumpet of green

or a sky of confetti blossoms

but with a seed

small pale and barely breathing

 

it lay quietly

waiting for the lavender clouds

that carry the first warm rains

till for some reason as ancient and

everyday as the sun itself

 

the seed cracked

split and softly burst into

a faint tendril

a root a sprout

a thin wisp of a growing thing

and with no thought of stopping

it pushed through the

dark soil with the force of

a billion winter winds

until it

 

pierced the crust of the outside and

split the frozen armour of earth

which has held spring safe

since time began

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© Zaro Weil

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