You Cannot Stop the Spring

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” –Pablo Neruda

You cannot stop the spring.

Vipers in their hidden nests,

they cannot stop the spring.

Tin-pot gods and false arrests,

they cannot stop the spring.

Lovers in their wild throes,

Crocus as it breaks the snow,

All redeeming Nature knows

You cannot stop the spring.

Bigots in their settled hate,

they cannot stop the spring.

Virus that proliferates,

It cannot stop the spring.

Doctors in their lonely rounds,

Poets with their sacred sounds,

Human kindness that abounds

shout, nothing stops the spring.

So, Love, as we face

this darkening land

where cruelty breaks the soul

and brown-shirts lay waste

the rule of law:

let us be love’s offering.

Let us hear

what children sing:

Nothing, nothing

can stop the spring.

Dr Pies is professor emeritus of psychiatry and lecturer on bioethics and humanities, SUNY Upstate Medical University; clinical professor of psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine; and editor in chief emeritus of Psychiatric Times (2007-2010). Dr Pies is the author of several books, including several textbooks on psychopharmacology. A collection of his works can be found on Amazon.