gallery

“Enough Already” the newspaper said;
the storm was the talk of the town.
The snow was clogging the side streets
and still was coming down.

But the wind slashed in and carved the snow
and sculpted with her hand.
And every swirl around house and tree
conspired a crystal land.

And after it stopped and the sun came out
the people came gazing too.
And the drifts were diamonds and sapphires:
smooth startling white and blue.

It was easy to see the wonder
and forget the problems it brought;
although it can strangle us, freeze us to lumps,
it’s winter, it’s northern: that’s hot.

Posted in Poetry, scapes, snow | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

reluctant clocks

gremlins have dropped by
our snowbound house
taking a mad March
break from playing
havoc with aircraft
and fiddled with our clocks

quite a picture
mad March gremlins
using our clocks
for violins
in some zany orchestra
up in the belfry
with the bats

but heck
when time came
for us to
spring ahead
for daylight saving

our digital bedroom clocks
refused such frivolity
with a hidden store
of Luddite insistence
and defied all attempts
to influence
their staid old standard time

like a chain-anchored
steel pocket watch
in the vest pocket
of a solemn
train conductor
they espouse the old

so it’s
down with the
new-fangled atomic
and up with the
steam-powered—no&#151
spring powered
hand-wound
reliable old
independent time

by gosh and by golly

Posted in Boppin', lotus eaters, Mild-mannered opinion, Poetry, serial | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

philosophy of snow shovelling

In sunny surf he woke to hear the snow:
the muffled strident rhythms of machines.
He coughed; a spasm tore his chest; he sneezed;
yet soon he’d trudge out shoveling in the cold.

The trees were puffed in white, each twig aglow;
poets vie to pantheize such views;
children would dress snowman for the news;
and he is  heaping pyramids of snow.

Inside his parka beats an ancient heart;
and just behind the curtain watching wife
worries, wonders at each pause for breath;
he thinks how in a week it could depart,
how sun and rain could sweep away this life;
and with a giggle contemplates soft death.

Posted in aging, Poetry, snow, Sonnets | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments