Friday, February 8, 2013

Of Storm-song and Promise





Darkness relents; day’s argent surf rolls mute
Out to the melded fringe of land and sky
Where none its austere anthem can refute
As gales shiver our summer dreams awry
Beyond the window, frigid fathoms seethe
Parting ice lips in cold and cheerless mirth
Yet none restrains the potent pulse beneath
Of life held in the womb of mother earth
Where delicate wild anemone still sleeps
Forget-me-not and violet whisper quenched
Before the fragrant, purple river sweeps
Across the emerald vale of spring unclenched
Earth’s frozen scrim of winter-white is kissed
With visions of frothed pink and amethyst

Beyond the dappled pane we hunch to brace
The tides lashing our pallid skiff of skin
Clinging to promises of golden grace
Clad in a dashing zephyr’s welcome grin
Then, watch the screaming, scowling felon wilt
His rival threatens not with bully roar
But challenges with bits of sunshine spilt
In puddles warm against earth’s south-faced shore
Before it spreads, virile and ravishing
Across the plain, over hollow and hill
Melting beneath its lovely lavishing
Winter’s tenacity and waning will
And soon the still and sterile snowbound lane
Will smell of dust beneath a summer rain

The skeleton of naked apple tree
The maple and the willow, silent, strong
Suffer the span twixt snow and honey-bee
And bud-pods bursting with summer night-song
Outside the wind moans, searching for the choir
Of quivering aspen, poplar, elm and birch
He rakes the stark and unrelenting spire
The woodlot hushed like Monday-morning church
And so he wails across unfettered field
As sleet-tears sting our cheeks, our lips and eyes
His grief exchanged; raw, raging tempests wield
Their utmost in longing’s stormy disguise
A soloist; his passion amplifies
As a cappella storm-song fills the skies

© Janet Martin

Our thoughts are with those on the eastern sea-board once again. Be warm, Be safe.

We are snow-bound in a very broad region in Ontario today.







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