Sunday, January 8, 2012

gone . . .


in the early evening of a cold january
the house is suddenly so very empty . . . my bedroom window shakes with the wind . . .
its glass is fractured . . . moisture leaks through the fault and freezes
forming a pale film of ice through which i watch a flock of small birds race across the sky
like so many smeared pencil lines . . .
the trees turn inwards . . . in the winter, they keep their thoughts to themselves . . .


10 comments:

Kay said...

i love the idea of trees turning inwards with its thoughts...beautiful..x

steven said...

kay i think the trees do their best thinking and tell stories to themselves through the wintertime. steven

Valerianna said...

Very wintry - the membrane between inside and outside is fractured, the cold seeps in. Are you feeling the need to pull in and keep to yourself? I am!

aguja said...

For some reason, although the poem is called 'Another September' (by Thomas Kinsella)I was reminded of this poem on reading your own. Whether it is that he, too, sees the scene beyond the window,or whether it is that he also creates a bleak atmosphere ... and then again, it could be his personification of autumn (as you personify the trees) it produced a similar effect.
So few words you have chosen to weave the spell; insular, isolated.

Jo said...

Your words rarely evoke such melancholy. Beautiful images, indeed, but I feel myself wishing I could give you a hug right now.

[♥]

There.

steven said...

valerianna - so inside the piece of this. i'm so outside looking in and wintertime makes that more likely. i'm english and i live in canada and i love this ocuntry but the winter has never been a friend and i am really really trying hard to find an "in" so perhaps this year cross-country skiing will enter the body/mind/spirit vocabulary of this boy...... steven

steven said...

hey aguja - i'll scout out kinsella's wors and see what you're saying. thanks for the pointer. it's a good time of year - i'm happy actually - but the closing in of some parts of my life, the details that are beyond my wishes, well they do shut down some of the spectrum!!!! steven

Linda Sue said...

Just catching up with you and your poetry- Breathless, I should know better than to read more than one a day! LOVE love!!!
Header is stunning!
Aloha!

Verification word is "bugga"- hahahahah

erin said...

i feel you not quite yourself in this piece. reading back here about your relationship with winter explains it. it is a haunting piece though and i like it very much.

cross country skiing and hiking through a forest - this might help to create a relationship. didn't your children grow here? didn't you see their noses pressed to windows or didn't they stand about with their arms out, unable to lower them for the bulk?

i ran through the winter woods yesterday. a storm came up, seemingly out of nowhere. where once i might have ran from it, i ran to it. this helps, too.)

xo
erin

steven said...

erin - it's me ... just a piece that surfaces at times . . . yeah my kids were born here and i learn to love winter . . in fact i always do but it gets subsumed under all the loss for a while . . . . . . i ran yesterday through winter woods . . . it was right beside a river. it entirely filled me. pictures and words will come within days!!! steven