SOLSTICE

The winter solstice

Sneaked in last night.

This morning

I look down the hill and across

The road at a verdant pasture

That rolls up to a stark woods

On a hill too steep for houses.

An old stag keeps his home there,

Lays down somewhere

In the wet leaves

And waits unchallenged

In the off season

For his wives.

A low-pressure system is

Rolling into Tennessee from

The gulf, so gray droplets

drip from bare branches

In a quiet so thick

The new winter stays north

Biding its time,

maybe a couple of weeks,

Before it slides into place

And stitches a quilt of snow

To the ground

in white darkness.

Reviews

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

hats off to you. this was enthralling. i liked how it begins with a bit of irony. The winter solstice /Sneaked in last night. it gave me a bit of a luagh, how clever these lines were. then the poem proceeds to paint us a picture. this was done very well. i could really see your surroundings, and we get a bit of a drama involving the 'old stag.' there is one in every town, i guess. it ends with a bit of pathos. the way the first snowfall is described evokes some strong feelings. there is so much layer and texture to this work. it really took me on a journey.

[Vol]

Ern,
Thank you for taking the timed to say so much. I have left my lovely home in Tennessee and now life in the much harsher Texas panhandle. It was a grave mistake ton leave.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

i have never been to america, but the way you describe it makes me want to visit. when one thinks of the USA, we normally think of the cities. but america is so vast and much of it is covered in sunning nature, as your writing has educated me. i hope one day you get t return to Tennessee. i too feel like returning to Western Australia again.

[GlendaK]

Isn't that funny, Ern, when I read you, I feel like you are in The States. Like, maybe we could get a coffee sometimes.

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

haha, i wish we could do that. i live in a small city in japan but online i get to meet people from around the world. im grateful for that, i guess.

[GlendaK]

Japan! Exotic! xox Eternity

[GlendaK]

Well, I looked at EXOTIC and I meant BEAUTY! Japan is so beautiful!

[Vol]

Erm,
America is not cities at all. What is posted for people to seecomes from where the cameras and publishers ar which is the cities. If you could watch American TV, you'd think that everyone lives in New York City, or one or two others. As ma people, we are nothing like the way we are portrayed. And you should know, from the pictures of Japan, the beauty there is sublime, in fact, I can think of frw places that are not imbued with deep, abiding, beauty. The Sahara, or the Alps, Antarctica, Austrailia... Beauty makes its home in our eyes and hearts when we lookk for it. I remember a movie "American Beauty," in which there was a lovely scene with a plastic bag caught in the corner of a building where the wind picked it up and let it dance in the air like a ballerina. We walk in beauty all the time, if we woujld just slow down and see it.
Vol

[GlendaK]

Vol! Dang! You just blew me away with that bit about the plastic bag! Yes! Beauty is all in the way it's portrayed! Awesome inference there!

[Ern M. Yoshimoto]

im flatterred you think so about japan.
me, i am actually getting sick of this country. i want to leave. however, if you ask me on a good day i will tell you about all the attractive sights in the countryside, the snowy mountains, the placid sea, the autumn leaves, our many rivers.
it's not the landsacape, rather, my life that i want to escape. and once i am ready to pack my bags, with your words in mind, i will be so excited to find the beauty the world has to offer.

[GlendaK]

Think of all the good "wherever" you are. We can't escape the bad no matter where we go. Japan looks beautiful. Think on the good.

[Vol]

Well, I'm not surprised, It is what makes you a poet...

[John the Baptist]

Thanks, Vol, for reminding me we are on the ramp for my least favorite month. January lends proof to the old Scandinavian belief that hell is lined with ice, not fire.

[Vol]

John,
hahaha!!
It's February for me, never could get the hang of Februarys...
Vol

[John the Baptist]

When I was a mental health emergency services worker, our busiest months were February and August. The dead of winter and the dog days.

[Vol]

Not surprised...

[D. Mansfield]

Great descriptive writing here. I could see the steam from The stags mouth

[Vol]

D. M.,
Thank you, To paraphrase McLuhan, "The image IS the message."
Vol

[Gee]

Hi Vol, hope you are well.
What to say apart from descriptive to the enth degree, a master at the top of his game:)
Merry Xmas

[Vol]

AW, Gee... :-) Thank you, and same for you, but I know you live in beauty, and your heart is right, what else do we need?
Vol

[Patricia Wedel]

dearest Vol... a very touching Poem... as my Maternal Grandmother grew up in Tennessee... and spoke reverently about growing a Garden on the Side of a Mountain. A Poem tucked in my Heart... softly, Pat

[Vol]

Aw, Pat! Really? Tennessee is a poem all by itself, and the most beautiful place I've ever been. Have you heard of "Ridge runners?"
Vol

[carl]

strong picturesque images with a nice narrative flow that conveys a vision of deep serenity. I had a similar tapestry experience on a high day in the woods of Missouri. Have tried several times to capture it in words but have failed so far. Yours is quite beautiful - carl

[Vol]

Thank you, Carl.
I know exactly the quietude of country isolation. It appears, however, that my little wooded two acres is no longer so quiet. An interstaee exit was opened a mile and a hlf down the road., and the noise is now day round. Sigh. But I remember it well and miss the forest and splashy creeks.
Vol

[carl]

Sorry for your lose - we have recently moved to the city and my wife and I both really miss the country fortunately we were able to raise our children in the Missouri countryside and all but one have a great love of the outdoors and nature.

[Vol]

Where in Missouri? A big chunk of my heart is buried there...

[carl]

Near but not too near Lake of the Ozarks

[Vol]

Cool. I've driven by there, Pat was from Springfield...

[carl]

My wife was born and raised in Springfield. I am from the east coast and came to Springfield for college.

[Vol]

Interesting!
My Cousin used to teach at Evangel, and my family has been AG since it began... I left deczades ago. It is a beautiful place and the biggest city for its size I've ever seen.

[GlendaK]

Hi Vol, So you wrote this while you were still in Tennessee ...Sorry you regret the move. You might get accustomed eventually.
I've moved a few places. Some I liked. Some not.
When I was living in the foothills of Virginia, I went deer hunting lots with my boyfriend.
I never killed a deer but I have cooked plenty deer stews. And rabbit. And squirrel. A few dove. I never acquired a taste for it, though.

[Vol]

Glenda,
I know, right? I can and have enjoyed wild game, but why would I? The last time I went hunting wads in the 1950s, I can buy better tasting stuff at Kroger. I have also lived in Virginia, down in the sphincter where no one goes, my brother was born in St. Paul.
I have moved so many times in my life, my only connection to the earth is poetry...
Vol

[GlendaK]

Oh, Vol, You don't like that gamey flavor? Lol. My kid went to Minnesota from NC but ended up in Texas where he loves it! Yeah, like you, I anchor in my writing.

[Vol]

Glenda,
It isn't that i don't like game... it's just too much work... The last time I grew vegetables, I almost died from the heat, and it did my back no favors either. I'll save myself for when the s**t hits the fan and the lights go out for good...
Vol

[GlendaK]

Not for good, Vol. You believe in Jesus. Death is just the beginning.

[Vol]

Glenda,
I'm so glad you know! Knowing Him isn't the best thing, it is the ONLY thing that matters!...
The entire universe will fade to nothing in His presence. Can't wait!
Vol

[GlendaK]

LOVE is what it's all about, eh, Vol? Folks been screaming that for lifetimes and never really got it.

[Vol]

We scream about everything! It's why Marc Antony won over Brutus. Check out my poem today... it seems apropos to this conversation.
Vol

[GlendaK]

Will do right now, Vol.

[Chris Shaw]

The winter solstice. Always pleased when it arrives and it signals a turning point. More light, that’s what it means to me. The imagery in this poem is sublime Vol. A painting in words. Perfectly lovely.

Chris

[Vol]

Thank you, Chris.
I wrote this when I lived in the beautiful countryside of Middle Tennessee. I had lived a million places, till the twenty-five odd years I was
there. It filled me up.
Vol

[Pete]

that's it all right and quite eloquently painted with words. we had some snow a couple of days ago and now frigid air from canada has us shivering. a fine how do 'ya do - brrr.

[Vol]

Re-Pete,
This Florida boy hates the cold! I'm in the Texas Panhandle now and it was almost 60 degrees today.
Vol

[Pete]

sure, rub it in. we've got single digits at night and 20's during the day but supposed to start warming up to more normal over the next few days.

[Vol]

;-) ..........

[ceecee]

Hello, Vol. I read a work of yours offline but saw this and wanted to comment on SOLSTICE.
A few years ago when I was little, I hated seeing the cold set in.
But now that I'm older, it seems even relaxing though I know winter can be killing.
The endless nights are comforting.
Nice piece!
Did you see any more signs of that stag?

[Vol]

Hello Eternity!
Oh, yes. Once I was just out exploring the woods and followed a path where I startled him out of his bed under a cedar tree, and another time when he and a couple of his ladies startled me when I left the house in an early fog and they were grazing in my yard.
I am a Florida boy at heart, and HATE the cold, as well as the short days.
Pour thumbnail looks like you are in a hospital room, I hope you and yours are okay!
Vol

[ceecee]

Aren't you afraid when you startle him, he might run you over? Does he have antlers? Be very careful, Vol!
Thanks for asking about my grandmother.
My great grandmother passed. She was ready to "leave this wicked old world", she said.

[Vol]

Nah, I've moved away, and they were always more afraid of me than I was of them...

[Vol]

Oh, and where did you find me off-line? I am ccurious to know.

[ceecee]

I was signed off but looking in and I saw your works.

[Vol]

Cool......