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.
Posts Tagged ‘cold’
This Season
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bird, cold, grief, song, winter on January 17, 2022| 8 Comments »
Porphyry Basin
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, hiking, skinny dipping 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
Chickadee, dee, dee in Three
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bird, chickadee, cold, importance, priorities, three word lines 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.
One Sitting on the Porch
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, forgiveness, melting, poem, poetry on December 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »
One in Winter
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, heart, poem, poetry, river on December 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »
when cold enough
the river becomes its own obstacle—
oh heart, stay warm, stay warm
You Know How Frost Goes
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged attention, cold, frost, neglect, poem, poetry, relationships 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.
Five Cents
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, generosity, parenting, poem, poetry, warmth 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.
This Afternoon, I Walk East
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, heart, love, poem, poetry on October 23, 2015| 1 Comment »
How good the cold air
feels on the face
after a morning inside.
I try to tell myself
it could work this way
with the heart, too—
a little winter
when there’s been
so much heat—
but the heart does
not believe me
and zips up its coat.
Ice on the Water And
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, love, paradox, poem, poetry on January 15, 2015| 2 Comments »
ten below
and yet it unfurls so greenly
this new leaf of love
Yes, Everything
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged cold, connection, ice skating, nature, poem, poetry, warmth on January 4, 2015| 5 Comments »
When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.
—John Muir
and so when I tug at the blue green ice
that marbles the top of the river, it’s no
surprise to find it connected to those mornings
when I was a girl and the lake was frozen
and I could skate all the way to the middle,
could follow the cracks and skate so far
I could hardly see my small yellow house.
I would lay down, face to the ice, and feel
the way the cold rose up to sting my check,
feel the chill seep through my winter clothes.
I would roll over and stare at the white sky
and wave my arms and legs in the angel pattern,
though there was no snow. And I’d stay there
a long, long time. In this way, I learned
it is possible to be warm even held by the cold,
and tugging at this, it is no surprise
to find it connects to everything.