Midwinter Musings of a Midwesterner

Midwinter Musings of a Midwesterner

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

                After we Midwesterners were spoiled by a relatively mild late autumn and early winter, the midwinter song of Mother Nature has the harsher tones of past winters in Wisconsin.  In the Milwaukee area, the drifts and snowpack of the two most recent storms left us with the greatest snow depth since the winter of my last year of full-time teaching (2010-2011). 

                Despite the challenges of a cold and snowy winter, I cannot imagine living somewhere without the changing of the seasons:  I think those quarterly shifts of Nature do feed my poetic soul.  Nevertheless, pondering this shortest month of the year, I do wish winter were the shortest of the four seasons, rather than the longest.  Since the previous few posts on WORDWALK have been of the lengthier variety, this post will conclude shortly with a brief, new poem of the season.

Midwinter Muses for the Midwestern Poet

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

In the midst of a long Midwestern winter,

poetry comes …

yes, poetry comes …

on the delicate lace of a snowflake,

midst the feathery wings of a Snow Angel,

from the stinging bites of sleet,

around the snowdrifting barnyard,

beneath the streetlight of a salt-covered city sidewalk,

on the rosy, cold cheeks of a child,

under the tall hat of the smiling snowman.

Still in the midst of a long Midwestern winter,

poetry comes …

still poetry comes …

alongside the clear chimes of the cathedral bells,

in the snap of Jack Frost’s fingers,

upon the cutting sounds of gliding ice skates,

in the padded applause of mittened hands,

within the whirl of a wintry wind,

with the muffled laughter of sledders on a sloping terrain,

from the mesmerizing stillness of a below-zero night.

Ah, yes, Poetry has come, settled into my wooden rocker,

and is kept warm under the crocheted, woolen afghan,

beside which my Leader Dog Willow lies softly asleep.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and poetic February!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

February 3, 2021, Wednesday

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