~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fern's frozen fingers
scrape the eaves, each gust a hymn~
a banshee howling.
the powerlines hum low grief,
while snow-blind streets hold their breath.
A light snow dances with the street lights
Mimicking the summer’s lightning bugs
Settling on the leafless branches
Soft paws hesitatingly touch its cold
Sparrows huddle amid the shrubs
Watching ice covered bird feeders swing
An old dog rolls in the new fallen snow
Unaware he is no longer feral
A door opens, he returns to his lair
Beauty enfolds the dimly lit ghetto
Childlike dreams etched upon frosted windows
A Simple Pleasure
A simple pleasure in simple lines
Frosty mornings, that wear fuzzy slippers,
Bundled against the dawning amber chill
To watch the early robins through misted windows
With fragrant Lady Grey in stoneware mugs
And crispy buttered English muffins
Spread with marmalade.
On a rain soaked early afternoon
When raindrops tumble down rain chains,
As puddles drip from bare branches,
To settle in a comfy chair
With a warming bergamot scented
Cup of tea and little chocolate something.
And when the wind howls in icicles
And evening snow falls in frigid fingers,
Wrapping roads and rooftops in white blankets,
To view the snow blind fury from the fireside
With a spicy pekoe brew in a china cup
From garden parties long ago and faraway.
A simple pleasure in simple lines.
2-9-23
Contest: A Simple Pleasure
Theme Chosen: Drinking a Cup of Tea
Sponsor: Julia Ward
I’m not sure if it’s the shortened days
That douse the fire with malaise
Doubts that color vain displays
Red cheeks that the cold wind flays.
And yet I strive to soldier on
Battle with each breaking dawn
Stagger like a fallen Fawn
In defeat slow quartered, drawn.
Old trees concede the warmth I seek
The wisest owls too cold to speak
Mock the soaring hawks as weak
Call even nature’s beauty bleak
And yet we hold to Solstice hopes
As snow-blind climbers cling to ropes.
John G. Lawless
©11/19/2022
Casting stones into rivers,
broken deep in the core.
The tide of something coming.
Rusted in hue lost in the soul.
The tv burns in its silent snow
as it drifts in quite lands
of vacant eyes lost!
In the dreams of a former glory
of others cast in light
n shadows in a box
electric and dynastic…
A fearing nation lost without
and within, single-minded think, not!
Singular in abstract thoughts of truth
or reality lost and snow blind…
Eyes staring vacantly covered in night
a fearing nation of ill will and dark dreams!
By the grave I saw blacken snow flakes
Lightning flashed as I witness
Drawn down from blacken purple skies
Burst of brilliants, winter blast snow blind
Upon a midnight electrics static,
you came gently clanging
Deep into that darkness changing, snow blind
To warn me about the steady
That incremental isocheim - that incremental isocheim
Death shall bring trends
Eagerly I looked for tragedy, wintertime
The festivals alteration adjusting
The dynamics brought such sorrow, snow blind
I have dreams of flows misting snow men and women kissing
I crave the coolish, changeable climate
The cyclic cold snap contouring
Take thy gruel hot coal from out my heart
Come stand wit me twit the freezing blizzard
Come dear heart
Much I marveled the integrated icebox
The snow-covered snowplow steadying shoveling
So inviting is the thought…
To be frozen with me come not see will be so kind
If together we be 2 frozen lovers just snow blind
1/29/20
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2020©
MOONLIGHT AND WHITE
WRITTEN BY JEFF R HILTON
2019
MOONLIGHT AND WHITE
FAR AND WIDE
ITS FREEZING OUTSIDE
STOKE THE FIRE, HUNKER DOWN
DARK EYES DREAM
OF SWEETEST SUN FARAWAY
SAND INSTEAD OF SNOW
WHERE WARM BREEZES BLOW
I COULD SOON FORGET
THESE DARK
NORTHERN DAYS AND NIGHTS
THAT LEAVE ME COLD
I'M JUST HERE
AGAINST MY OWN ADVICE
I SHOULD OF HEADED SOUTH
INSTEAD OF BEING
STUCK HERE
IN THIS SNOW AND ICE
DOWN IN THAT SOUTHERN SUN
HOW COULD A HEART
NOT BE LIGHT
INSTEAD OF A STRUGGLE
JUST TO KEEP UPRIGHT
MAYBE I COULD SLOW DOWN
TAKE MY TIME
TRADE MY SNOW SHOVEL
FOR A FISHING LINE
NO ANOTHER STORM WILL DROP
ADD A FEW MORE FEET
TO THE TOP
SOMETIMES ITS JUST
TOO MUCH CHEER
FROZEN FEET AND
FROZEN BEER
I LOOKED UP TO
THE MOUNTAINS
YOU KNOW
I WATCHED THEM SLIDE
CLEARED A PATH
A HALF A MILE WIDE
THIS ICE AND SNOW
I DON'T KNOW
IT BRINGS ME DOWN
MAYBE I WOULDN'T
CARE SO MUCH
MAYBE I WOULDN'T MIND
IF I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE
I WAS GOING SNOW BLIND
MOONLIGHT AND WHITE
BLUE TO BLACK
ITS A LONG WAY BACK
I’m broke ‘n’ don’t think I like it too much.
Last night’s cab ride. No one turns the wheel now.
I stare through cathedrals whose glass I can’t touch.
I want to go home but I can’t see how.
Snow blind. A slow rolling conveyor belt.
Fresh plumes of spiraled smoke smoldering air.
A fire outside. Flooded roads start to melt.
I want to get out but can’t pay the fare.
Grey sparrows take refuge in candlelight song,
their throaty notes grapple Gregorian chants.
I’ve stolen music where short breaths draw long;
where spared by my own Dark’s draconian dance.
Slow down the belt. Thin tin buckles. Louder.
Churned poverty stops - returns as black powder.
11/13/2018
Structure comes
from the classroom
Imagery comes
from experience
And it’s hard
to structure
What you can’t
—see
(Villanova Pennsylvania: September, 2018)
Ever watchful,
the third man
and we knew
there was one
that
always followed on
behind
snow blind,
but able to see
the future paths
laid out for me.
Twas the day after Christmas
Throughout the North Pole,
Not a creature was working
Not one Ho! Ho! Ho!
The elves were at home
They had the day off
Santa was gone
To Hawaii, to play golf
A little R and R
With his island wahine
Displaying her snow globes
In her Christmas bikini
Mrs Claus was visiting
Family back east
And the reindeer were grazing
On their tropical feast
When all of a sudden
Out on the back nine
His cart left the path
Cause he'd gone snow blind
All of the golfers
Caddies and guests
Came running with cell phones
Photographing the mess
There in the sand pit
Was Santa red faced
His wahine on his lap
It was such a disgrace
But Santa took names
For next year's big list
If you weren't in Hawaii
"I'm sorry, you missed"
December 25
Wahine: pronounced /wa he' ne
Daniel Turner
After the
elective execution,
you reach at the
end of nowhere.
A wayward
cloud stands alone
under the plump moon.
It is absolutely?
white, like the
wings of a swan.
Beneath the earth
you want to dig out
the remains of dark hoods.
Gale-force winds
promise to make you
snow-blind.
Satish Verma
Movies at midnight and musical drifts
I am snow blind and mesmerized in it all.
Sheer delight in the stardust moment,
Transient though it is.
It banishes everything in wonder.
Snow blind,
in a snow storm.
Some just don't know..
winters sailor be warned !
South winds and east winds adjour,
stuck here all winter nice and warm.
Fall is turning the ground golden and rustic but winter will blow in the covering of white
snow.
I watched the horizon the artic line,
trying to define the mood of season.
Snow-blown relics on artic expeditions,
frost-bitten, snow blind the rolling
gray clouds masking the
blinded winter’s black madness.
I watch as fall tumbles from its pedestal.
Chilling nakedness lurks on the tree
limbs.
The distant horizon is inhospitable as
a bedfellow with constant pain.
I am soundless and motionless in
this moment of frozen monochrome.
I pull my collar tighter to block the
present chill.
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