New birth

An early lamb, and new born in the time of Imbolc, the sheep are the first to give birth, like the snowdrop, signs of new life. I love this poem

Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know what despair is; then
winter should have meaning to you.

I did not expect to survive,
earth suppressing me. I didn’t expect
to waken again, to feel
in damp earth my body
able to respond again, remembering
after so long how to open again
In the cold light
Of earliest spring-

afraid, yes, but among you again
crying yes risk joy

in the raw wind of the new world.
Louise Gluck