Winter Trees

  by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22050#sthash.TI0Xy2kU.dpuf

Winter Trees

  by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22050#sthash.TI0Xy2kU.dpuf

Winter Trees

  by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22050#sthash.TI0Xy2kU.dpuf

Winter Trees

By William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details

of the attiring and

the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon

moves gently among

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.

               February 13th, 2014 a walk along Old River Road SW Cedar Rapids, Iowa

 The walking trail bridges are packed with snow cover, the sides of streets lined with drifts piled high from plowing and shoveling. It is snowing once again today. Many people are tired and complaining about all the snow. Many people complain about winter even before we have any and I wonder why they  live in a place with  all the fully defined seasons. Perhaps some would love to move to  a place such as Florida or southern California but the logistics prevent them, there is work there is family, there is the financing of such a move.

a beautiful thing occurs in the icy winter atmosphere, sun dogs, as seen above

 I am not someone who would opt to live where seasons are monotone. I enjoy the winter, and the spring and the summer ( though that is one I will complain, I would prefer lower humidity) and the autumn. I have always contended, urged on in my thought by many a literary story teller, that living in the extremes of nature makes a person stronger and m ore resilient.

 My city sits on a river. In my adult life I have seen  times of flooding serious enough to  damage and disrupt the city's life. I was here for what was a savage flooding in 2008.In the time since i have become one who frequents the river on my nature walks. I watch the river as it changes seasonally. I know the trees. I have seen trees I langer now, watching as the  earth below them  has dried and crumbled, blown away in drought then been washed away in spring flash flooding.


below is Veteran's Memorial Coliseum just recently restored after the ravages and damage from flooding in 2008

 I watch the water marks on shore to see the levels change. For several years I have been watching a river shrink. The Cedar river that crests over 20 feet has lately been ankle deep in most places. I know this river is evidence of the health of the land here in an agricultural state. The west coast is  achingly, dangerously dry. The Sierra Madres need snow to melt and water the  great California fruit, nut and vegetable basket and it looks like that is not happening. Wherever you live you will see the price of food increased as crops suffer from the western drought.

 This winter every ice, sleet and snowfall I would cheerily remind folks ''we need all the precipitation we can get''. We have had 2 summers of endless sun, cloudless skies, weeks and weeks without rain.Out land was bone dry and precipitation was a rare thing. This winter we have seen a change in pattern. We have received regular snow. North they have received much and that will come to us in spring thaw. Spring thaw is now to be seen, will we melt too fast and have it all wash quickly down from here to the Mississippi and not be able to soak in and help fill our water table and  provide the needed moisture for the lands and agriproduction here? will the cities built up around the waterways be sandbagging come warmer weather? Will spring bring us continuing precipitation and might the midwestern drought be ending?

This intersection , perhaps half a mile from river is part of flood plain, it was the edge of dry land when the river swelled in June 2013

As always, time will tell but also choices humans make in land use, providing for absorbent wetland space and natural watersheds will make a difference. Meanwhile, today it is snowing again and the flakes are beautiful

A Winter Message

A flake of snow in flurry thro’ the air
Had landed as a kiss upon my cheek:
A secret message, just for me to share;
To take to heart but never dare to speak
About or presuppose to other eyes
Your open feelings – distant though they are.
And so, upon your lips, my OWN surprise:
A flake of snow returned from me afar.

Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010

A Winter Pond

Sting-chill of winter matt –
Her frozen hand caressed us all;

And calming bleach of silence
Pressed upon the rustic scape
To leave an ashen underbelly –
Once raging summer chroma.

Even Winter’s gelid lungs laboured
Under heavy drag of flakes –
Their pilgrimage: to stay a deadened floor
In crunch-white peace.

And round about, the weight of time
– Collapsing under Winter’s drag –
Transmutes to grey: it’s three o’clock –
No lights pricking black out here! –
Even the night globe,
The Great Reflector – stonewalled;
Camouflaged by lead-laden cloud
Lolling in the claustrophobic noon.

At ground, a farm pond –
Seized in a dark hiatus –
Offered up repentance –
Why, it dared to harbour life!

I forgave it in my desperate gaze
Upon the crazy-paving surface,
That sealed in the black-chill temperature,
Where at bottom, something nithered
Still survived.

Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2010

Winter's sun

There is something about the winter's sun,
That aspires hope after struggle
The wait for tomorrow after
long cold shivering nights;
is the optimism attached
to the winter's sun.

There is something about the winter's sun.
The Florescence of the beaming rays
the calmness of the flowing sunshine:
convinces me about the warmth,
of the winter's sun

There is something about the winter's sun.
The tender hugging of the sunbeams
on the exposed numb body:
confirms about the comfort provided
by the winter's sun

There is something about the winter's sun.
Those for whom is the winter's suffering
the warmth of the sun is also for them.
Relieving them that, a part of the
sunshine belongs to them
Of the winter's sun.

azmat naushad asif