If Winter Comes
Wishing you a Joyful and Peaceful holiday season...and health and happiness in 2013, Apocalypse or not!
FREE DOWNLOAD of The Twain, Poems of Earth and Ether
April is the cruellest month, the poet says.
Green shoots and blossoms make
a mockery of winter's torpid isolation -
the sky's sheen like old ceramic
crazed with sapless boughs -
the ponds stagnant with rotting vegetation
and hedgerows once decked with flowers
and spangled fruit become
naked tangled thorns,
defensive as razor-wire.
Summer's dream is banished
by the first frost, sharp as ammonia,
its sense, its scent, its sentience
suppressed in resting earth.
We close our doors and light our fires,
don weatherproofs and scarves and rugged footwear
against gale and snow and pelting rain.
Hibernation seeps into the marrow,
blunting the senses to loss of balm
and cordial breezes, chromatic tones that
electrify the filaments of nerve and fibre
and promise Paradise.
Benumbed, our grief is tamed. We shut out
the nocturne of the winter solstice and
devise our own illumination, scorning
the antipodean canicule.
We make merry with old songs,
embellishing the murk with gold and glitter,
and heart-reviving greens and reds
reminiscent of crataegus, said to heal
that restive organ of its strains and pains.
What we need is a Death to conquer death,
a Life whose Grace and Incorruptibility
can harness all the vital forces of Creation
to taste the Lethe and live to bridge its banks
Eternally.
What majesty on earth can that accomplish?
What man-at-arms? What president? What ruler?
Brute myth where human and divine converge!
But hush! A rumour whispers through the darkness
and there are angels carolling a new theme
when the wavelength is attuned.
A blinding star fixes the conjunction
of heaven and earth and turns
Time back to front.
No clockwork mechanism now.
A baby in a makeshift cradle
(or is it an unconstraining grave?)
heralds a renascence that
stirs the ailing cosmos,
pulls sap towards the ether
and consigns the cruellest month
to history's past imperfect.
...at the still point, there the dance is.”
—Burnt Norton - T. S. Eliot
About Rosy
Rosy Cole was born and educated in the Shires of England and now lives on the West Sussex coast. A professional writer for thirty years, she has worked as a Press Officer and Publisher's Reader and is a member of the Society of Authors (UK), the Historical...
Connections
Causes Rosy Cole Supports
World Vision, International Prison Outreach, Salvation Army, Emmaus Project, Poor Clares, DogsTrust, BUAV (against animal testing) WWT (Wildfowl &...
Rosy’s Favorite Books
Restoration - Rose Tremain, Rites of Passage - William Golding, The Waves - Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf, Sunset Song - Lewis Grassic...
Breath Taking...!
Dear Rosy,
I love your poem. I read it several times, ( as I always read them:-) This is so beautiful! Is this from one of your finished works of art or in your upcoming one? I have a few books on my Christmas list that my family is waiting for.
By the way, I LOVE, LOVE, "Dreams of Gold" on my night stand now. I'm praying to reach the words to write a review. It will be (truly) my first.
Thank you very much for your beautiful and richest colors, feelings, and depth of sacred wisdom: "If Winter Comes". Just the title gives me the chills. Miraculous ones.
Truly,
Catherine Nagle
To have such an enthusiastic
and encouraging reader like you, Cathy, does indeed make it really worthwhile. Heartfelt thanks!
This is a new poem - written especially for the 'Winter Blog'. It has been brewing for a while and I was planning to post it around Christmas.
A book of poems is in preparation for publication later in 2010 - my first! - and IWC will by included. As you may know, the title is from a Shelley quote: 'If winter comes, can spring be far behind.' Titles aren't copyright and it has been used for a number of works in the past by other people. Sometimes, it helps if a title strikes a chord.
Delighted that you enjoyed DREAMS OF GOLD and are thinking of reviewing it:) The first edition had several mentions in the UK national press, but no review. Oddly, though I never considered this to fall under a 'popular' heading, I've received a more enthusiastic response from the public for this than any other of my works (despite some kind reviews of those!)
I find reviewing aids objectivity about the construction of one's own work. There's always such a lot to learn about this art and craft of writing. You never stop!!
God Bless,
Rosy