Come Have Some Winter

As we all know, winter is an endangered species, its habitat rapidly shrinking.  It’s been close to a decade since we had a really good snow at our home in Maryland. One of the reasons we wanted to spend this year at Three Sisters Farm was to have a winter.  And while there have been colder and snowier Januarys here in MidCoast Maine, we have not been disappointed. There’s been plenty of sledding, skiing several times a week at Camden Snowbowl, beautiful drives admiring how snow hangs heavy in the trees, not to mention adventures like getting spit out of a toboggan chute at 35 mph and skidding across frozen Hosmer Pond. 

We had a brief February thaw last weekend.  But it’s cold again, there’s snow in the forecast, and we’re headed to Sunday River for more skiing.  Spring can take its sweet time. I am here for another round of winter.

Really, the only disappointment has been my poor powers as a poet to convey just how beautiful winter is around here.  But here are a few attempts:

Across the valley

tree tops like frosted glass shine

white in morning light

Snow covered spruce stand

still at waters edge swaying

slightly in the wind 

Turns out I like cold

I’m just grateful I don’t have

To go milk the cows

Pale blue light behind

snow lined trees the coyotes

call close to the farm

What alchemy is this

turns the night magic

a ring around the moon

snow fields glowing in the dark

tracks of ice tracing the beach

shadows of trees so sharp

I have to step on them to

be sure they’re not solid

Light stays later now

Underneath this bitter cold

A trickle of spring

Shrinking sheets of snow

Like confectioners’ sugar

frost the wheat brown fields

Ten degrees above

freezing and the air is sweet

with hope this morning

Tonight all is soft

Focus moonshine through the mist

As we wait for snow