Long Snowdrifts Poems

Fukuda Chiyo-ni Haiku

Fukuda Chiyo-ni was a Japanese poet and painter of the Edo period, also known as Kaga no Chiyo.

Having seen the moon
I can bid this planet
farewell.
—Chiyo-ni, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The moon settled
in...

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I've lain beneath this sugar maple before.
In fact, I know it quite well.
And it's seen me and watched me throughout the seasons.
And it has its own stories to tell.

In Spring, it would hear about all...

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In the tremble of the evening and the rustle of the unfinished letter,
My aged hand, shrouded in the mist of memories, writes the last farewell,
Under the blue cloak of celestial silence, waiting for the silent...

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I’ve behaved poorly every winter
I can remember, my awfulness in each
separated only by degrees, 
secrets piled like snowdrifts at the corners 
of rooms I wouldn’t stay in. 

Hiding was easier.
I stuffed myself in the closet...

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I will never forget the man I fell in love with, 
a man who once felt whole, who now bellows 
through broken nights of blood-stained desert, 
who sees ashen faces frozen in sand squalls ...

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When my heart aches, almost breaks,
Dewlike tears fall softly,
Sensing my need for letting go, 
Allowing the feelings to gently flow.

When my light fades, bouncing on shadows,
Lingering in the dark, twilight
Gesturing from the eventual night,
Breathing melancholy...

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The winter winds piled snowdrifts against the old vets cardboard shack.
Another homeless vet, he shared his humble abode with his doggie Zach.
He pulled his tattered army overcoat about his frail frame and lay upon his...

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School gets out at one o’clock instead of three-thirty.
The teenagers drive around the town square, cuddled up.
Parents are calling to make sure they are wearing coats.
Grandmas are making chili, and grandpas are snoozing.
They picture their...

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outside
inventoried oval-stoned
cathedrals appealing
chiming crimes of passion
woke citronella
fog
hung in cement-hamocked snowdrifts
cloaked slow on slick-stained windowsides
tenement sheets
with the pomegranate notes
of rhythms unrhymed
   while all the uptown laundromarts
rising up
from insomniac-scrambled sidewalks
corked-copper moon tumbling earthward
like a sweet
sweatshredded...

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Let us put together a montage
Of aromas…In our minds

Perhaps of Juicy Fruit gum
Perfume, sweat or of Roses
Of rain on hot pavement
Of tar, surf and the Seaside
Of candies, pastries baking
Of gun smoke…and loam
And any and every...

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Living on a mountain top in Vermont "Spring Showers" are very dangerous
With several feet of snow still covering the rocky terrain above the tree line
a recue unit is always prepared for the fools that climb...

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For They Had Deep Faith And True Loving Hearts

Snow was seven feet deep, it was still falling
Life was brutal and crying for frozen feet
Grandfather heard echoes miles away calling
He starving alone, nothing at all to...

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Image of Diablo giphy by Blizzard Entertainment.

Dante's Inferno

An overcast sky blotches a caring Sun's sympathetic warmness, diffusing confidences of a blissful morn, 
Consolidates a desolate soul, filled only in despair of inflated apprehensive pupils, 
Notwithstanding,...

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All the festivities are now over
Oh gosh I’ve got an aching head
I need to nurse my bad hangover
Ease myself gently from my comfy bed

I can’t face breakfast, I feel too darn ill
The stench of yesterday’s...

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Alternating sleet and snow 
Bounced droplets against windows  
Children pressing noses on glass
December 24th, Christmas Eve at last
Excitement palpable all around
Flakes gently accumulating over ground
Gusts of wind creating snowdrifts fast
Holiday memories of Christmas's past
I...

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Our winter weather is highly unpredictable
Jack frost often paints frosty ferns on our windows, but we seldom get any snow 
Occasionally we get a flurry but it rarely stays on the ground 
However, I vividly...

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Another year has come - chillingly -
and more chillingly for me than in decades heretofore.
I watch it ranting from my window as I recall. . . . 

The year already past had tugged me from...

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Pristine mountain breeze
Shivers naked trees...
Autumn whispers her adieu.
Northern air descends
Chilling snow filled winds,
Pines view a magic milieu.

In the frigid snow
Icy crystals grow
In the beauty of the light.
Snowflakes bring a sigh...
Snowdrifts rising high
As the winter sky...

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I am a furious force
you dare not reckon with when I am at my peak!
Assassin of startled vegetation,
I attack with no mercy or compassion.
Limbs of trees – laden with snowfall that I bring - 
snap...

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Snowdrifts blow      caught in the mountain wind
shifting movements    in the currants bend
before them are     the days of summer fled
into the past  ...

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"Dreams are a form of time travel
without the jet lag"... Poet.


On Christmas Eve, I dreamt of the days of my youth;
back to when I'd toboggan down snow-covered hills.
And ski, although I wasn't skilled, to tell...

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The less
I move my lips at my 4:00 am Saturday morning sessions
The more
These words are trees standing still beside a racing river

A long way away
Freight train bores the night
Moon without light

Its alto horn
Projects from nowhere...

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My arbored vines were frozen since mid-December.
The seasonal chill, no one is able to tame,
but my red winter roses, planted in September,
have profusely budded and their blooms are aflame.
Radiantly colored, their beauty wins acclaim.

Protected from...

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Winter’s silent soul
Kisses away the darkness
With trembling flakes, snow feathers
Cardinals whisper
Blessing the breathless prayers
From hearts who feel love’s inklings

Soundless as snowdrifts
On the edge of a shadow
Caressing the mountains, the stars
Imaginations 
Lift the spirits with lights,
Dazzling...

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There walks warriors in that graveyard,
holy men and medicine women of ages.
at night you can see their spirits dance,
setting fire to history's pages.
In that far corner up by the stream,
far from the eyes of publicity,
she...

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