J P Marmaro Poet Ottava rima

A Winter's Tale

The time of growth and change is done and past.
From thaw to frost activity prevailed, 
And change came often, often coming fast, 
Till finalizing Fall all toil curtailed.
With wintertime’s quiescence, come at last,
The old year’s final breath has been exhaled. 
   And now all nature’s quiet, all now still, 
   All bedding down, preparing for the chill.

The other seasons garner all the praise: 
From sprouting Spring, through Summer’s fruiting fields,
To Autumn’s vibrant hues and bracing days,
Each one its own unique enchantment wields. 
But Winter’s coming oftentimes dismays,
So cryptic are the blessings that it yields-- 
   Yet unexpected beauty will abound
   In many forms both subtle and profound.

Then gales gust frore as frigid flakes bespeak
The wintry depths which grip both heath and grange:
The rime-bound land is frozen hard, and bleak—
Yet bleakness has its beauty, harsh and strange.
And what seems dead or dormant soon will wreak
What surely counts as nature’s deepest change: 
   The imminence of warmth’s returning breath…
   The immanence of life in seeming death.

For springtime’s semelparity is fate, 
As sure as tide or twilight, and as strict.
It burgeons and it blooms, but soon or late
It goes to seed and dies. The clock has ticked
And knelled the midnight hour — but don’t berate
The seed for its mortality -- predict
   Instead the miracle which will ensue:
   That out of silence, life is born anew.

♡Like0

Share Poem

---

Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.

Please Login to post a comment

Line Gauthier February 8, 2021 at 7:41 PM A pleasure to find your wonderful poem published in the 2020 PS Anthology, JP~

Richard Breese December 3, 2020 at 2:05 PM Very good poem. I just read it in the PS: It's Poetry anthology for sale at Amazon. It is the best poem I have read thus far.

Joseph P. DiMino December 21, 2019 at 7:12 PM Wow! Very beautiful. And also a metaphor for people and death...but not of the spirit, again to rise, the reward of good and faithful being. The seed of life forever in all of creation. Lovely work.

Dennis Spilchuk December 16, 2019 at 4:45 PM An impressive Ottava rima poem carrying the story line of "A Winter's Tale." Your use of descriptive words are suited & well placed. Nicely done, a very enjoyable read. J P Marmaro December 16, 2019 at 9:50 PM Thanks much, Dennis, for your kind words. I am only partially happy with this: the form seems to back me into corners where I am forced to use archaic poetic tricks (such as distorting proper word-order to enable rhyme or scansion, as in stanza 2 line 4). That the form is itself very old-fashioned and formal only partly excuses this, I fear. Anyhow-- Thanks again!