envisioning winter

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Susan L Daniels

I want to find that place where visions approach the way wild deer take apple slices from gloved hands if they are hungry, and I am still.  Do visions come in winter?  I cannot hold winter; blood too warm to keep solid any ice that wants to fill my space.  This season does not love what is live–it is for bone trees and skeletal sleep; starving time; scaffold pared of all flesh and spare, echoing bareness.  If I am still enough the four colors that are here will perch on my fingers.  If I am still enough, the shadows that are blue in midday will curl in my lap and sleep, growl when I stand to wipe bounced light from my eyes, too much light burning memory into retinas.  Cold is deeper than snow, and this is no long wait for wisdom.  If this were a desert I could wait longer, and learn stillness–not this place where I grab knowing quickly and run, before frostbite, before hunger sets in, before hibernation.

About Susan L Daniels

I am a firm believer that politics are personal, that faith is expressed through action, and that life is something that must be loved and lived authentically--or why bother with any of it?
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13 Responses to envisioning winter

  1. jasmine calyx says:
    January 5, 2013 at 11:36 am

    This is excellent. I love these:

    “Do visions come in winter? I cannot hold winter”
    “it is the season of bone trees”
    “If I am still enough the four colors that are here will perch on my fingers”
    “and this is no long wait for wisdom”

    The ending: “If this were a desert I could wait longer, and learn stillness–not this place where I grab knowing quickly and run, before frostbite, before hunger sets in, before hibernation.”

    This is seriously awesome, Susan.

  2. Mary says:
    January 5, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    Cold definitely IS deeper than snow, and I don’t know which is worse. Ha. I do think I too could tolerate a desert much easier! I enjoyed your thoughts.

  4. Pingback: cold bones. « Sick with Poetry.

  5. Noel Ihebuzor says:
    January 6, 2013 at 1:40 pm

    Deep philosophy – this reflection on winter! Wow!
    Cold is deeper than snow – what a deep thing to say and how many levels of meaning are embedded in that simple utterance. well done Susan.

  6. nelle says:
    January 6, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    Nice exploration. We portray hell as warm, but there is an absoluteness to cold, and at that endpoint with its absence of energy, everything ceases to exist.

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