Waxing Snoetic.

Poems for Winter, just two of my true faves!

Winter Tenement

by Malcolm Cowley

When everything but love was spent

we climbed five flights above the street

and wintered in a tenement.

It had no bathroom and no heat

except a coal fire in the grate

that we kept burning night and day

until the fire went out in May.

There in a morning ritual,

clasping our chilblained hands, we joked

about the cobwebs on the wall,

the toilet in the public hall,

the fire that always smoked.

We shivered as we breakfasted,

then to get warm went back to bed.

In the black snows of February

that rickety bed an arm's length wide

became our daylong sanctuary,

our Garden of Eden, till we spied

one spring morning at our bedside,

resting on his dull sword,

the rancorous angel of the bored.

"We raised this cockroach shrine to love,"

I said; "here let his coffin lie.

Get up, put coffee on the stove

to drink in memory of love,

then take the uptown train, while I

sit here alone to speculate

and poke the ashes in the grate."

Oh, I LOVE THAT! Here's another one:

Winter-time

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head.

Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,

At morning in the dark, I rise;

And shivering in my nakedness,

By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit

To warm my frozen bones a bit,

Or with a reindeer-sled, explore

the colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap

Me in my comforter and cap;

The cold wind burns my face, and blows

It's frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;

Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;

And tree and house, and hills and lake,

Are frosted like a wedding cake.

SO GOOD! Okay, one more:

Winter Days

The need I have on winter days

To sit behind the window pane

To gaze upon the frosted ground

The snowflakes coming down and down

And sit alone, a quilt around

my shoulders, legs, and let it drape

a cozy blanket, winter's cape;

I want to hug each single flake.

I think to those cold snowy nights

Our bodies hot and bundled tight

Beneath five quilts we're wound together

Joined for warmth in such cold weather.

 

How can a snowflake yet be found?

Snowflake, fall here on the ground!

Come, bring your friend and then another

to such a hopeful, wishful mother.

I'd like to hear the quietness

The snow pat-pat as it comes down;

And I'll just sit and retreat still further

and watch each flake go round and round.

When people tell you you'll never do anything with that English degree, prove 'em wrong with a blog, baby! Now I really should go clean my bathroom...  Bye!  ;0)