Hath Winter Then a Heart of Tenderness

Whenever I try to cup the wonder

of first-snowfall into verse,

they echo sentiments penned a few years ago...

here is a tweaked re-run.

Hath winter then a heart of tenderness

For landscapes clad in rags of brown and gray?

Where farewell and arrival coalesce

…Winter spills forth as autumn slips away

She touches with redemption-tinted garb

The stricken aftermath of summer cheer

Her sugar-coated kisses soothe the yard

Where yesterday it suffered autumn’s tear

And where the wanton field lay naked, bare

She wreaths its frond and furrow with the gleam

Of diamonds fit to garnish angel’s hair

Tucking to earth the farmer’s finished dream

Granting a gilded respite to his care

  Spilling from sky a snowflake-choir requiem

***

Tis right to entertain both joy and grief

This season; the portent of hope and fear

Where we embark anew, the shoal, the sheaf

Of garnered days melded to bygone year

Like gathered harvest, seed then deed is wrought

Preserved beyond the elements of time

Its echoes tune the pastures of our thought

Where longing and fulfillment toll their chime

And now a gracious sheath of purity

Embellishes the dull and stricken plain

A mother with compassion’s sympathy

Blankets the grim reminders of our pain

Drawing our eyes to present mystery

History sleeps; to linger there is vain

***

Hath winter then a heart of tenderness?

White snow covers a year of scarlet tears

The barren bough reaches for her caress

The heart reaches beyond past hurt and fears

To offerings of hope and happiness

Unblemished; yet again a gift of grace

Ignores our monuments of selfishness

Where we have scathed and scarred her virgin face

With sordid sins of foolish fantasies

Time’s vault will not exhume our leaps of woe

But gently leads us from these agonies

Across a threshold unmarred as fresh snow

Granting to us but this; our memories

 To keep the good then let the remnant go  

Janet Martin~ 

Winter wanders in

wearing a white bridal gown

earth carries her veil

On Saturday night the snow came in fat pillow-y piles...