Etching Out a Poem on a Cold Winter's Morn

A stretch of exceeding cold, snow, and general winter misery has settled in for several weeks across the country. Waking early on this Saturday morning, this little poem stirred me out of my warm bed. The tea and slippers in the poem are not imaginary. Etching these words on the bedroom window...maybe that's a wee bit of a stretch. For all my shivering friends, whenever you are tucked in this morning!

January Nights

Under reams of blankets lie

Shivering dreams filled with

Icycled images of sunny days

Clothed in picnics and bare feet

Along the beach.

Dare not to wake me from this

Warmest reverie!

Echoes of crunching snow beneath

Scraping blades of plowing truck

Scamper along the ceiling height

Then fade in the distance as the

Howling wind follows behind,

Undoing with mocking glee

The tracks left bare and cold,

Ripe for drifting snow.

In sheltered cocoon of bulging bed

The weather conversation continues

In my head where sniffles

Tickle frosty nose that peeks

And points to dominant theme

Of single digits sinking fast

Until a minus temperature raps

At windows draped in winter caps.

It is not a small thing to battle

The cold in one’s dreams

When the elusive imp of

Nighttime refreshment

Dons mittens at midnight,

Sipping the heat from my soul

Until waving the white flag

Of morning sheets my scuffing slippers

Mutter their way into the frosty room,

Where rattling teacups hot with lemony hope,

Fuel the day with raw energy

Arriving in the woolen coat of daylight,

Beckoning me to button up,

Muster up the courage to

Blast away the cold with duties of

Home and hearth and happiness.

                                                 © 2014 Nancy Gerst

~~~~~

MUSIC LINK

Footprints in the Snow - Claude Debussy 

Here's a recent snow photo from my brother ...

Photo by Jerry Begly - Drive to work through the Colorado Rockies