Winter Morning

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Jone Macullough Here. Thank you , Jone, for hosting. Be sure to stop by and see what she has for us today.

This has been a busy week and I didn’t post yesterday, on Thursday, as I usually do. I wrote cards, baked stollen with my friend, Leah, and spent a morning at a day surgery center in Watertown, NY, while my husband, Bart, had a carpal tunnel release of his wrist. It was a minor thing, though no surgery is minor to the person who has to have it. It went well and we are so grateful to the medical and nursing staff who continue to work, helping people everyday in the midst of this pandemic.

Now we are ready to move on and soon, this pine will be ready for Christmas.

I hadn’t prepared for Poetry Friday this week, but I wanted to share something. so I found an old notebook where I scribble down things, bits of poetry I write or find here and there. I found this:

WHY COMPLAIN ABOUT WINTER?

moan about snow
lament the howling wind
wishing you were elsewhere?

Here is a blank page
a pen full of ink
whole worlds to think,

thoughts that have nothing
to do with January.

©Janice Scully

For me, winter is a time to slow down. I look forward to it.

I have more time to read, and I want to share this book by Omar El Akkad. I heard him speak two weeks ago at Colgate University as part of their Living Writer’s series. If you don’t know about this series, check it out. All the author’s talks and readings are shared on line and it costs nothing.

El Akkad is a journalist, born in the Middle East, who has traveled and lived in several Arab, so many that he himself has always felt stateless. His amazing book, WHAT STRANGE PARADISE, is about a Syrian boy, Amir, who washes up on the shore of a Western European island (probably Greek) and rescued by a teenage girl. If you ever wonder what it might be like to be a refugee, this author makes you feel it and understand the terrible risk taken by so many who flee, so many who are children.

Have a healthy week, everyone and thank you, Jone, for hosting!

13 thoughts on “Winter Morning”

  1. I love the way you turn complaints about the cold into time to slow down enough to think, Janice. And thanks for another great book recommendation – El Akkad’s book sounds interesting. 🙂

  2. Glad your husband’s CT surgery went well. Thanks for sharing about El Akkad’s book. Your poem is great food for thought. I like the slowing down of winter too!

  3. Janice, I’m so glad your husband’s surgery went well. You are right, no surgery is minor to the one going through it. Great advice in your poem and so well done! Happy holidays!

  4. Janice, sometimes it is a good thing to take a break and engage in other activities. It is good news to hear that your husband’s surgery went well. My husband is suffering from a fractured hip but the doctors will not operate until he loses 40 pounds. Your bare tree looks lovely so enjoy decorating. I hear Syracuse is getting snow so stay warm and cozy.

  5. Glad all went well for your husband, Janice. Yes, I like winter, too, enjoy the staying in though we’ve had quite a lot of it these past two years! I’m glad you found the poem, just right for now! Thanks for the book rec & the link, new to me. When we think about whining about something, I know we should not. There are those struggling every day to live. Thanks for sharing a thought about that, too. Merry Christmas!

  6. I’m also glad things went well yesterday. Hooray! Now on to Christmas and… gulp… winter! I also enjoy the slow days of winter, though I must admit it is much easier here in NJ than it was in MN. Thanks for the book recommendation and for your poem… which I love… the blank page! Just like a new snowfall… waiting for a courageous creature to make the first mark.

  8. Isn’t it grand how you think you have nothing prepared and then suddenly (after stollen, cards, and surgery support) there’s a poem and book review! Good luck on the slow down. I like to plan for it…but that usually fills it up and erases it!

  9. I love that poem, Janice. “Pens full of ink, whole worlds to think” on that blank white page, speaks such truth. It is as white as the snow we are getting here today and so true. Happy Christmas and all the rest to you. Glad Bart’s surgery went well and I am intrigued you zipped to Watertown! The book you shared looks like one I’d like to learn from.

  11. I love the two ending lines in your poem,
    “thoughts that have nothing
    to do with January.”
    Thanks for the space for thoughts and slowing down, and the new book.
    Hope you have more slowing down time–and glad your husband’s surgery went well!

  13. Love this:

    Here is a blank page
    a pen full of ink
    whole worlds to think,

    I like the slowing down of winter, too, Janice. So glad to hear that your husband’s surgery went well. Enjoy decorating your tree!

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