Note to Reader:  In the Torah reading cycle, we’ve just entered Leviticus (Vayikra), in which God tells the Israelites and their priests how to make offerings.  I’ve often reflected on the giving and receiving of gifts over the years.  Go to “The Giver, the Gift, the One Who Receives,  also in the “In the Garden” section of this blog, for another poem that considers acts of giving and receiving)

by the kitchen wall
solitary crocus surrounded
by clumps of unmelted snow,

begins to open her golden face
to the shining sun,
beside green

leaves of clumped snowdrops
just emerging.  Pursed lips,
her gilded

petals kiss spring breezy
air.
                                4/3/2015