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.