WINTER POEMS
by Elaine Magliaro
SPACEMAN
Whooshing down the hillside fast
Trees and people blurring past
Runners carving out the snow
Like an astronaut I go
Blasting into outer space
Rocketing at record pace
Through the stratosphere I fly
I’m commander of the sky
Won’t return to Earth until . . .
I reach
the bottom
of the hill
Pond in Winter
The meadow pond lies silent, still…
Sealed in tight by winter’s chill.
A downy quilt of fallen snow
Hides a cold, dark world below.
I wonder all the winter through
“What do fish and turtles do?”
Bedtime in Winter
Dark comes early.
Night is long.
Mommy sings
A bedtime song.
I am snuggled
Down and deep
Beneath soft covers.
While I sleep,
I have my teddy bear
To hold.
He keeps me warm
When nights are cold.
WINTER BALLET
It’s white snow,
Bright snow,
Soft-as-feathers light snow…
Tiny ballerinas there
Pirouetting through the air
With their sparkly crystal shoes
In their winter dance debuts.
Ferns of ice
Rooted
On windowpanes, their
Silver fronds growing in the frigid night
Then melting in the morning light.
Snow dropped by
And here am I
Catching flakes
Of falling sky.
Sleet tap-dances on
my roof, clicks its icy heels
on my windowpane
With frosty feet
little mouse prints a message
in the snow: Hello!
I wrote the following poem for Tricia’s Monday Poetry Stretch—What Words?. The “stretch”—or challenge—was to write a poem that contained all of the following eight words: snow, frozen, wind, evening, woods, lake, village, farmhouse.
UNTITLED
A long way from the village,
near quiet woods,
snow settles on a frozen lake.
Burrowed in the mud below,
frogs dream the winter away.
Their larders full,
sleepy squirrels curl upagainst the cold.
No wind stirs in the trees
this chill evening.
Everything is still.
In the distance,
a solitary farmhouse stands,
a weathered monument
to the past.
Here, in his lonely lair,
an old man
wraps himself in the silence
and his memories
and hibernates from the world.
********************
At Blue Rose Girls, I have a poem by Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska entitled Children of Our Era.
The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Adventures in Daily Living.
16 comments:
Oh no. Feel better soon, Elaine!
Spaceman is so visceral and brilliant, Elaine. Feel better!!
Oh, dear. Bronchitis is no fun at all. Hope you have some warm things to comfort you.
I love the FROST poem. I love frost in general, except when it's on my car, and you captured its ephemeral nature so delicately.
Hope you feel better Elaine! I love the poem about the pond, reminds me of the pond near our house.
Thanks, everyone. I haven't felt this sick in years. I rarely spike a temperature. I just hope I'm better by Sunday so I can go to a Superbowl party with a few close friends. I'm responsible for the dessert.
Love the Winter Ballet. What a lovely selection of poems today. Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Take care and eat lots of soup!
Hi Elaine,
Feel better soon!
Thanks for all these lovely winter poems. They make the looooong January more bearable!
Love "Spaceman"--we took our kids sledding for the first time a couple of weeks ago (pretty sad, I know; but hey, we're Texans born-and-raised). Trekking back up that hill was no joke. And I won't even start on my horrible ancient windows and the frost that forms on the INSIDE!!
Elaine, my students are learning about how sensory imagery. With your permission, I'd love to include your poems as examples. I especially love the winter pond poem because I used to live by a pond and wondered the same thing.
Feel better soon. This weather sure doesn't help.
I hope you're feeling better soon, Elaine!
What a wonderful job of capturing so many different moods of winter. This winter too should give lots of scope to the imagination!
Love these wintry poems, especially Spaceman!
Get better!
Jama, Jennifer, Linda, Becky, Kelly--
Thanks for your comments and get well wishes. It's Saturday morning and I'm feeling so much better. The chicken soup must have helped.
We've had lots and lots of storms here so far this winter. It's hard to get my mind off of snow and ice and winter weather.
Linda, you have my permission to use my poems with your students.
I'm glad you're feeling better! Of these, I think "Spaceman" is my favorite. It reminds me of many a sledding run (and wipe-out) I had as a child. Thank you for re-sharing it. :-)
Lisa,
Thanks for stopping by. We had open land across from our house--with a big hill perfect for sledding in winter. In "Spaceman" I tried to capture the childhood feelings I had when whosshing through the snow.
Elaine, hope you're feeling better....
Hope you're feeling better, Elaine! These poems are great. Spaceman is FUN!!!
Thanks, Vivian. I'm feeling better--but still have a sinus infection and shortness of breath. I had to get out and shovel yesterday, though, because my husband is off in sunny Arizona where the temperatures are in the 80s.
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