Here is the stanza I'm starting with (I think).
I
Short days
long nights
the coldest of seasons
heralds the approaching light
Short days
long nights
the coldest of seasons
heralds the approaching light
However you want to approach it, the challenge this week is to write a few stanzas (or more!) about winter. I hope you'll join me. Please share a link to your poem or the poem itself in the comments.
Twelve Days of Winter Paintings
ReplyDelete1.
Nights drawn in
by a shaky hand.
2.
Poster child
for starveling sparrows.
3.
A shiver of robins
dot the landscape.
4.
Mountains in white lace caps
pose for their portraits.
5.
Black and white
winter lithograph.
6.
Ice, snow, plow,
December collage.
7.
Eaves icicles
sculptural happening.
8.
Like a drop of errant red paint
cardinal blots the snow.
9.
Bobcat tracks through drifts,
dry brush master.
10.
Ice melt stipples
the snow below.
11.
Through the window
a mural in white.
12.
Water monochromes the world,
rain, snow, ice.
13.
That's winter.
I lied about the number.
2014 Jane Yolen all rights reserved
Jane, I read the last stanza and laughed out loud. Your poem is a beautiful description of winter.
DeleteI love that bocat, the"drybrush master"!
Delete1,3, and 12 are my favorites, Jane. And ONCE UPON ICE is a brilliant anthology--one I return to repeatedly. I knew you'd do something wonderful with winter:>)
ReplyDeleteTricia, I love your line lengths. They get hopeful as your stanza goes on!
Here's mine, inspired by the beautiful, silent pause the world seems to take after a good snowfall:
After snow,
whitebreathed world pauses
slowly
silently
exhales
--Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
"whitebreathed" of course. Though I have read it aloud now three ways: white breath'ed, white breathed, whitebread.
ReplyDeleteWow, Jane and Laura, beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWhirls, drifts,
lifts white dust,
sighs, sifts,
and then lies
quiet till
the next gust
—Kate Coombs 2014,
all rights reserved
The lines feel like gusts, Kate. Thanks.
DeleteJane
Tricia, I love your line "heralds the approaching light." It reminds me of a line I came up with years ago that has stuck with me. Maybe over the holiday I'll have time to play with it. In the meantime, these two winter poems have been floating around in my head this week. Not sure they'll fit with your renga, but you definitely got me thinking!
ReplyDeletehttp://readingtothecore.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/poetry-friday-snowpiaries/
VISITOR
ReplyDeleteCrystals of lace float
Against my windowsill to
Keep me company.
(c) Charles Waters 2015 all rights reserved.