Tuesday Poem: Winter Light
Horizontal strobes
across the russeting slope
disclose the contours of the land
the fierce geography of rock
the patterning of sheep through bracken
lipped water-marks on sand
The mountain’s shadow
bruises the lake.
The season is wintering in
and the cold is like loss:
a cramping hold on bone
muscle, thought, spilling in
from the east.
The air tastes metallic
like snow dissolving on the tongue.
This is the death month
December's Druid alphabet
that signified
the rebirth of the spirit.
Ash trees clumsy with unshed seeds,
a deer’s tooth grooving the bark.
I glimpse a snowdrop spiking up
through a dead leaf
before the falling sun herds
us into the longest night.
© Kathleen Jones
Image courtesy of ABSFreePic.com
A peaceful Solstice and a very merry Christmas to everyone!
I do like this . I will read it to cool me down when it gets too hot to bear in NZ! Have a lovely Christmas Kathleen.
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