Gardener's Winter-hope Refrain...

When earth is robed in waves of white

And summer seems a world away

When hearth is warm with firelight

And skies are stoked with icy gray

Above nude tree-copse, stiff, austere

When all the flowers disappear

We do not lose our faith; we know

A garden waits beneath the snow

When dark comes early and stays late

In overtures of moody blue

The heart, a meek and muted slate

Of resolution and review

And when at last the day is born

In cold, colorless winter morn

We do not weep; for each requiem

Dawns nearer to hope’s flower-dream

Beneath the dead of winter; life

And oh, beneath its soldered deep

Faith waits; someday it will be sight

Where summer’s flower-gardens sleep

When winter’s climax grips us; cold
Spilling gray grumbles over gold

We are upheld by hope’s refrain…

Where sun and flower-gardens reign

© Janet Martin

 ...lest we forget:)