Defiant spring
Spring in the paintings of Ukrainian artists, a new poem, and a story about a stork couple in love.
Spring has fully arrived in my town, and every time I look at bright green leaves and flowers, I feel how my body fills with warmth and joy. These days, I try to breathe deeper, notice every little petal, pause to listen to bird songs, and absorb every moment of quiet happiness. Despite everything happening in the world, far and near, flowers still bloom, new leaves emerge, birds come back, and hope, frozen and forgotten, rises anew. After all, hope is like spring – it arrives when it seems that it will never come again.
A poem I wrote this week:
*** All the icy armor built around my heart melts away in spring sunlight. All my fears disappear in the sea of green leaves and never return. Every spring, I realize that I don’t need any fortifications when my heart is covered in flowers and shines with the sun.
In Ukraine, spring comes with the arrival of white storks. In Ukrainian, stork is “leleka.” White storks usually mate for life and return each year to the same nest from their yearly migration to Africa, which a stork couple does separately. While Ukraine has thousands of storks, people follow the life of one particular couple: Hrytsko and Odarka. It is always a nervous moment when the male stork arrives, but the female still hasn’t, as the migration journey is full of dangers. People watch the live stream camera daily to catch the moment when the storks are reunited again.
The camera was installed by the stork’s nest in the village of Lelyaky, near the Pyryatynskyi National Park, in 2023. It was supposed to be installed in spring 2022, but Russians invaded Ukraine and surrounded Kharkiv, where the park workers lived and the camera equipment was stored. The workers later said that when they learned that the storks arrived in March 2022 despite the war, it gave them hope to survive.
This year, Hrytsko and Odarka have already returned to Ukraine. Despite the unexpected April snow, spring and hope have come with the storks' arrival.
Watch the live stream camera of the stork’s nest here
I will finish this letter with the paintings of spring through the eyes of the Ukrainian artists:
Let me know which painting is your favorite!
Email: daryazorka@substack.com
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Wonderful art and poetry. We need to share more of this beauty to help us through difficult times. I’m sharing this with my oldest who spent a summer traveling in Eastern Europe. She’ll love this. Thank you.
Love all of them (not something I usually say about paintings!) but Spring in Kyiv's Kurenivka District by Abram Manevich really struck a chord with me.