When Winter Lands

We’re sitting under a snowfall warning today in my corner of western Canada, and while my original plan this week was to send out a lyrical essay on plants and poetry, today feels like a day to explore the poetics of winter. Each poem included below was written during different winters, over the past 10 years of my prairie winters. I find that poetry allows me to explore the beauty of winter, even while the cold makes me dream of warmer days.

there is
impressive silence
as the
teetering light
of morning
dances
under
graceful
white weather

When winter lands on the prairies, it usually arrives with a sudden roar, cloaking the entire landscape in white ice. With it comes snowed in roads, slower drives, darker mornings. All an invitation to slow down, to rest, to slip into a quieter mode of living.

frozen breath of winter
ice cold fingers touching
remnants of summer
that crackle and shrink
in the wind that leaves
this frigid beast behind
to linger a little longer

And although the holiday season asks us to go faster and cram as much as we can into a month of celebration, to do more and buy more, winter stays constant in her reminder to slow. down.

white fields flashing
as cars slide forward
snow drifted fences
slipping past my window
sun dancing on
frozen earth

There is a fierce beauty to the snow and ice of winter, and though the force of winter drives us indoors to warmth and light, there is much to appreciate about her invitation to slow down.

early morning wind
presses the snow against
the window
and the darkest part of
night leaks out of the sky

winter tumbles over the world
sometimes silent like
a shadow on the ground
sometimes wailing like
a desperate mother
she rules her domain of white
with a wild, fearless hand