Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the talented poet and teacher, Mary Lee Hahn HERE. Thank you for hosting and I look forward to the poetry you share with us this week!
WINTERY WOODS IN CENTRAL NEW YORK
Those who live where it snows know what it’s like to open the front door after a snow storm and see, hear, and smell winter. Even in the midst of climate change, those days still happen and was on display this week:
IN THE JANUARY WOODS
All around, the snow
painted the frozen
branches white
this breezeless morning.
No snow clumps
fell with a thud from trees--
no snow Hieroglyphics
on the ground.
I saw no birds.
heard only silence,
and so I pretended
(because it seemed so)
that time had somehow stopped.
Then soon, the drip-drop
of snow melt
echoed here and there,
.
A squirrel flashed by,
A doe and her spotted fawn
startled and fled,
as nature spoke,
inching it's way again
towards spring.
© Janice Scully 2024
POST CARD EXCHANGE
I received three New Years post cards this week thanks to Jone McCullough’s post card exchange. Thank you so much, Jone, for organizing this.
The first poem came special air delivery straight from Honolulu from Joyce P. Uglow, which I appreciated because her words were hopeful.
TRACKS AND HOPEFUL MOMENTS The importance of tracks in the squint of a new day hopeful moments moments of wonder wondering why words far apart in the squint of a new day. © Joyce Uglow 2024
The next poem came from Carol Labuzzetta with a photo of a castle.
RHINE DRAGON FANTASY Years come and years go With each New Year comes More stories of old . . . Arrows, maidens, and drums. Do you remember this time Of castles and plunder? Fighting on a riverbank till The town is asunder. Memories are stirred when My eyes see the stone turret Of the castle on the hill. Watch out! Don't be lured by it. Knights and kings lived here, So long ago, Perhaps, Perhaps, With a dragon in tow. © Carol Labuzzetta, 2024
The next postcard was a poem by Tabatha Yeatts accompanied by a painting of a dragon by “Elena.”
As the new year delivers the unknown to hand, Fortify yourself as well as you can: Repair your armor, pack a shield, Stow words and memories that heal, Keep compassion on tap and pour a deep flagon-- We're at the edge of the map, and here be the dragons. © Tabatha Yeatts 2024
We are not the first, it seems from reading Tabatha’s poem, to fight dragons. Happy Year of the Dragon!
Janice, your winter poem speaks to my heart and recalls vivid memories like yours. Nature spoke to you and becomes a visual for me. I am enjoying the postcards also. you received a different poem than mine and that makes poetry special. Next week, I am hosting and hope a few more Valentine postcards arrive via blogs. Stay warm.
It’s been very warm here all week but that winter snow is coming tomorrow, Janice. I love the lines, “and so I pretended
(because it seemed so)
that time had somehow stopped.” – When a time like that happens, it’s so true, seems like we’re in some kind of warp, deepening our breaths. I love the postcards, too, truly awesome gifts in the mail!
Thanks for all the poetry goodness, Janice. I love how there was stillness and silence in your poem, and then nature gradually made itself known “inching its way again towards spring.”
I like how you made the shift in you poem visible in the way you placed the stanzas on the “page.”
Janice, I like the poem you wrote dancing between winter and spring. You even separated them with space, which makes it even more delightful. I love the subtle signs of spring you skillfully composed. Fun poems from the postcard exchange.
Your winter poem is making me excited to get to our mountains. I know exactly that smell of winter, the sound of silence, the nearing of spring.
I love the title of your poem “In the January Woods” it’s so inviting. And yay for poetry mail!!