“First Snowfall”…..

 

 

(Not quite Winter Solstice, Tomorrow, Thursday, 11:28am)  Hard to see, but on the coffee table, there are Red, White and Green Candles, the Colors of the Hungarian Flag.

First Snowfall

 

There is such beauty in the still-night.

A sudden snowfall has pushed back

The boundaries of the mundane

And fantasy flows like outrageous mythology.

–

Chrystalized snow challenges the moon

Lights up a trampled ground

Gives a purity to all it touches.

 

Shadows form where before there were none

A supple mystery to something once familiar.

Now a strange and alluring world

Transformed, made anew,

Even forbidding as  huge trees

Groan with an icy burden

And bushes are split in two

With the weight of an alien gift.

 

–

The silence is complete.

No modern disturbance intrudes.

It is Winter’s gag on our fretfulness,

Our restlessness, our noise.

 

We are commanded to stay inside

By the fire, to read a book,

To look outside and admire

A miracle that we, with all our intelligence

Can not remake.

–

This is Winter’s true gift.

We are to obey the season,

This enforced solitude,

To wrap ourselves in this quilt of quiet,

Cast off our endless activity,

To finally be still,

To heal with the balm of serenity,

Silence.

–

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2017