Poem Spotlight: April, When Bluebonnets Grow
From the Author: Although one might suppose this poem would have been written in April, it was actually penned during the last week of March: March 23, 2013, to be exact. It was during my fifth semester - my third and final spring - at IMI, a small Bible school in Texas Hill Country with an intense focus on seeking God, spending time with Him, and meditating on Scripture. Throughout my time at IMI, I enjoyed walking in the “Horse Pasture” mornings, afternoons, and evenings - particularly during bluebonnet season. From the first spring, the bluebonnets captured my fancy with their deep blue hues, their star-shaped leaves, and their symmetrical composition - not to mention the beauty of field after field painted in that beautiful color. This poem grew out of imagining lifetime’s key events centered around the bluebonnet - from learning to know and trust God deeply on earth to an eternity of resting and enjoying forever that of which earthly bluebonnets are but a mere shadow.
April, When Bluebonnets Grow
I love to muse, and pray, and sigh
Through rolling, gentle, sunlit fields,
But, better still, I love to spy
Star-leaves, with deepest true blue yields.
All fear upends and worry flees.
God loves this azure bud, I know—
How fields turn into waving seas
In April, when bluebonnets grow.
I want a pure white veil to wear
Of ethereal cloud-mists gently soft;
A flower-carpet wide and fair
With true blue clusters waved aloft;
An emerald gem to match the blue
That’s echoed in the sprig I throw;
To stand with me, God’s man and true—
In April, when bluebonnets grow.
And when at last I close my eyes
To life’s brief breath upon this earth,
And when my feeble body lies
Within the dust that gave it birth,
I want that mortal frame to rest
Within the earth that kept it so,
And o’er the top, with blossoms dressed—
In April, when bluebonnets grow.
When resurrection’s song they raise
That year, I pray to God I will
With greater resurrection praise
Be singing it yet louder still.
I think I’ll find a blue expanse
Bright, endless, waving to and fro,
And think of earth days and earth plants
In April, when bluebonnets grow.
When morning breaks in endless dawn
And I shall see with heaven’s sight,
I’ll find there, as I wander on
Blue waving, breathtakingly bright;
For, when untouched by man’s controls,
The Master paints all fields blue so,
I’ll smile, remembering earthly strolls
And April, when bluebonnets grow.
© Erika Mathews 2018. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
