Grain Rain
April 18 - May 5
In this bounteous episode, "Grain Rain," Alexis and Kit are full of anticipation for a season in full bloom, beginning with the branching out from April’s ripeness into May’s freshness. Author Winifred Bird joins our co-host for an interview discussing her new book, “Eating Wild Japan” from Stonebridge Press.
Poems Featured in this Episode
Rain Clouds by Elizabeth-Ellen Long
Along a road
Not built by man
There winds a silent
Caravan
Of camel-clouds
Whose humped gray backs
Are weighted down
With heavy packs
Of long-awaited,
Precious rain
To make the old earth
Young again
And dress her shabby
Fields and hills
In green grass silk
With wild-flower frills
***
When April steps aside for May,
Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten;
Fresh violets open every day:
To some new bird each hour we listen.
- Lucy Larcom
***
Spring Patchwork, by Abbie Farwell Brown
If I could patch a coverlet
From pieces of the Spring,
What dreams a happy child would have
Beneath so fair a thing!
A centre of the dear blue sky,
A bordering of green,
With patches of the yellow sun
All chequered in between.
Bright ribbons of the silky grass
Laced prettily across,
With satin of new little leaves,
And velvet of the moss.
In every corner, violets,
Half-hidden from the view,
With many-flowered squares betwixt,
Of pinky tints and blue..
Embroideries of little vines,
And spider-webs of lace...
With gold-thread I would sew the seams,
And needles of the pine;
Oh, never child in all the world
Would have a quilt like mine!
***
Wisteria trellis--
behind it, in the light
wildflowers
-- Issa
***
Wisteria plumes
sweep the earth, and soon
the rains will fall
-- Shiki
***
Come, let us plant a tree,
Tenderly, lovingly,
Some heart to cheer.
Long may its branches sway
Shelter sweet birds alway,
Long may its blossoms say
'Springtide is here.'
– Anonymous
***
Arbor Day, by Annette Wynne
On Arbor Day
We think of birds and greening trees,
Of meadowlands and humming bees,
Of orchards far from crowded town,
Of heights where streams go tumbling down,
Wee mountain rills that sing and play—
On Arbor Day.
Of how the tree tops coax the rain
From flying clouds till hill and plain
Are clean and fresh from sea to sea;
We plant a seed; a tiny tree
Wakes up and throws aside the clod,
And stretches for the climb toward God—
We sing a song for the joy of May—
On Arbor Day.
***
The Polliwog by Arthur Guiterman
Oh, the polliwog is woggling
In his pleasant native bog
With his beady eyes a-goggling
Through the underwater fog
And his busy tail a-joggling
And his eager ahead agog
Just a happy little frogling
Who is bound to be a frog
***
May is Pretty, May is Mild by Annette Wynne
May is pretty, May is mild,
Dances like a happy child;
Sing out, robin; spring out, flowers;
April went with all her showers,
And the world is green again;
Come out, children, to the glen,
To the meadows, to the wood,
For the earth is clean and good,
And the sky is clear and blue,
And bright May is calling you!
May is pretty, May is mild,
Dances like a happy child,
On a blessèd holiday,
Come out, children, join the play!
***
Even while yawning
she keeps the tune...
tea picking
-- Issa
***
Spring Fever, by Charles Andrews Heath
When a feller feels a longing
For the medder in his breast.
When the robins north are thronging,
Where they haste to build their nest.
When the frogs peep in the puddle
Where I love to hear them sing,
Then my brain is in a muddle,
For I know it's really spring.
When the double windows smother
Us until we want more air;
When a protest comes and mother
Can't endure them longer there;
When we ope the cellar shutters,
Kitchen doors are on the swing,
Clean the cisterns, fix the gutters―
Then I know it’s truly spring.
***
Wisteria dangles
to its heart's content...
fresh green leaves
-- Issa
***
Wind on the greenery--
coming to see my house
the morning sun
-- Issa
***
Voices of the Earth, by Archibald Lampman
We have not heard the music of the spheres,
The song of star to star, but there are sounds
More deep than human joy and human tears,
That Nature uses in her common rounds;
The fall of streams, the cry of winds that strain
The oak, the roaring of the sea’s surge,
Might of thunder breaking afar off, or rain
That falls by minutes in the summer night.
These are the voices of earth’s secret soul,
Uttering the mystery from which she came.
To him who hears them grief beyond control,
Or joy inscrutable without a name,
Wakes in his heart thoughts bedded there, impearled,
Before the birth and making of the world.
Music Heard in this Episode
Nomadic by Pictures of the Floating World
Piano concerto, No. 1, 3rd movement by Franz Liszt
Fantasia No. 8 by Georg Philipp Telemann performed by David Hernando Vitores
Wisteria by the Blue Dot Sessions
Grand Duo Cocertant for clarinet and piano, Allegro by Weber
Frog Legs Rag by James Scott
Lark in the Morning by The Atholl Highlanders
Fomalhaut by Pictures of the Floating World
Merry-go-round by Howie and Ann Mitchell
Mono shino sora e by Mekoisu
Julian’s Song by John Pickens
Orecchio di Dioniso by Sergi Boal
Piano Sonato No. 4 op. 7, 1, Allegro molto e con brio by Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata No. 15 in D Major, Op 28 “pastorale” I. allegro by Ludwig van Beethoven
Eating Wild Japan
About the book:
From bracken to butterbur to "princess" bamboo, some of Japan's most iconic foods are foraged, not grown, in its forests, fields, and coastal waters--yet most Westerners have never heard of them.
In this book, journalist Winifred Bird eats her way from one end of the country to the other in search of the hidden stories of Japan's wild foods, the people who pick them, and the places whose histories they've shaped.
"A beautiful and thoughtful exploration of the deep relationship--past and present--between people and wild plants in one of the world's richest foraging regions."--Samuel Thayer, author of Incredible Wild Edibles and The Forager's Harvest
About Winifred Bird:
Winifred Bird is a writer, translator, lifelong cook, and lover of plants both wild and domesticated. For almost a decade she lived in rural Japan, where she worked as an environmental journalist, grew organic rice and vegetables, and ate as many foraged foods as possible. She currently lives with her family in northern Illinois. Paul Poynter (illustrations) is an artist, tree climber, and woodsman living in Matsumoto, Japan.
Visual Examples of Seasonal Words
