Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘cold’

In the Bleak Midwinter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 3, 2025| 6 Comments »


 
 
In the midst of cold,
past the fringes of darkness,
is this place of fire
where we huddle
at the edge of warmth
to relieve our chill
and regard each other’s faces
in the glow,
where we learn stories
of the shadows
and meet our own
darkness.
Loneliness is, perhaps,
believing there is no room
for us in the circle.
Belonging is knowing
every one of us
is the flame.

Read Full Post »

One After the Sauna

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 11, 2024| 13 Comments »

 
in deep, new snow
a naked angel makes wings—
her song, how it soars

Read Full Post »

Wilding

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 5, 2023| 2 Comments »


 for Corinne
 
It is always near-freezing,
this high alpine lake where
we slide into oddly blue water,

and bare strangled sounds
tear from our throats
as if our own wildness

is shredding through
manicured versions of self.
I crave it, this scraping away

of everything that isn’t
limb-thrash and lung-gasp
and skin-scream and heart-bang

and wild uncontrollable breathing,
crave the tingling after,
the feral laughter, the way

the world slips more deeply into us
when we dare to slip
more deeply into the world.

Read Full Post »

This Season

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on January 17, 2022| 8 Comments »


 
 
It is true, every day
brings a sadness—
sometimes like a blizzard,
sometimes like sleet,
sometimes like a clear morning
of fifteen below,
but I do not wish any of it away.
 
On the coldest mornings here,
the birds that choose to stay
fluff up their feathers
to trap in the chill air,
warming it with their own bodies
until it becomes their insulation.
 
This is, perhaps, how it is with grief—
by holding it close,
it transforms from something
that would hurt me
to something I infuse
with my own being,
thus becoming something
that allows me to survive.
 
It would be wrong
to say I like it. But I hear
how, with every day,
it is teaching me
a new way to sing.

Read Full Post »

Porphyry Basin

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on June 27, 2021| 2 Comments »

so oh slippery flesh song
of skinny oh dipping
into oh icy clear
of blue oh in the high
alpine lake, oh and oh
how the shiver oh
breath oh is oh
such wild thrill in the oh
can you oh even dream
of how good it is oh
to be oh just a few
more oh seconds
held by oh liquid snow
so oh yes so only
right oh here
and so oh yes so very
oh nakedly
yes oh alive

Read Full Post »

Chickadee, dee, dee in Three

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

And so, although

there’s so much

work to do,

I step outside

and let February

have its way

with me—cold,

dusted with snow.

Hard to believe

anything can grow.

But singing high

in cottonwood trees

are the chickadees.

 

It’s not hard

to think, This

is the most

important thing I

can do today.

I think it

until I forget

to think it,

until I am

simply standing there

in winter air

pledging my ears

to the sound

of the birds—

 

such a simple

song. Funny no

part of me

longs for other

work. Funny how

soon it becomes

everything.

Read Full Post »

One Sitting on the Porch

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

on my shoulder

small drip of last night’s snow—

all my frozen places take note

Read Full Post »

One in Winter

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

when cold enough

the river becomes its own obstacle—

oh heart, stay warm, stay warm

Read Full Post »

You Know How Frost Goes

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

 

 

I return to find the basil dead,

wilted and browned, dull limp flags.

 

And the cosmos, bent and spent

and dead. And the beans, dead.

 

And the marigolds, still brilliant,

but the forked tongues of their leaves

 

say they are dead. What a difference

one night of cold can make, how

 

no matter how warm the season has been,

it irrevocably changes things.

 

It doesn’t matter I knew it would happen

eventually. The petunias fall all over themselves

 

in profuse bloom as if to say, it’s okay,

not all is lost, but it’s enough to make a woman

 

decide to pay attention, to be warm

in every garden she enters.

 

Some blooms defy the seasons.

There’s so much beauty at stake.

Read Full Post »

Five Cents

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 4, 2017| 2 Comments »

 

 

 

Finding by chance a buffalo nickel

my son decides to spend his fortune

on a girl he’s never met

who woke one morning

with cancer in her marrow—

 

he tells me he’s thinking

a lot about death,

and he’s scared,

and I tell him yes,

it’s scary.

 

Later, I look out the window,

and though there’s not a hint

of leaves on the trees outside,

I feel some certainty

about green and summer,

 

and I’m amazed at how

just when we think the world

could not get any colder,

we are reminded what even

a tiny bit of warmth can do.

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »