Poems – Page 30 – Generous Wisdom

Shifting Focus

The iced trees still reach skyward,
their sheathed branches waiting,
the crystal water sparkling like
a million earth-bound stars,
so many miniature spheres of fire
yet nothing melts.

The thing that covers us in grief,
ashen and blank,
covers us golden.

The dormant trees have dressed

The dormant trees have dressed
in winter’s morning snow. Trunk to tip
they stand washed in crystal water
remembering the firey face above the clouds.

I see the golden leaves
fluttering in frozen wind,
I feel an empty sky,
the circumference of joy is hard to find.
I catch the cardinal’s red flash
under scattered bits of sun,
I know the cracking cold,
come cold winter, come.