Fiddle a Happy Tune: National Poetry Month

By John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA (Apple Blossoms  Uploaded by russavia) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AApple_Blossoms_(4532239974).jpg

I regularly play in children's poet, David L. Harrison's Word of the Month poem challenge. Each month, Harrison posts a word, and anyone is welcome to write and post a poem using that word. This month's word is BLOSSOM, fitting for many places in April, but not here yet!

Here's my attempt:

At the Old-Time Fiddler Competition:

Junior-Junior Division, Round 2

Waiting in the wings

For her turn in Round Two,

She tried not to tap her booted toes

To “Old Joe Clark,”

A classic her main competitor mastered

Technically.

But she knew she’d turned hearts

In Round One

With “Ashokan Farewell”

When a judge dabbed his eyes

With his blue bandana.

Name called, she stepped forward

And announced, “Apple Blossoms,”

Lifted her fiddle and made melody

That could coax a fruit tree to bloom

With sweetness

In time.

Fiddle contests take place across the country with categories for all ages. Here are the Dillion Junior Fiddlers playing "Old Joe Clark:"

and a young champion fiddler playing "Apple Blossoms:"

What kind of tune says "spring" to you?