glory of the snow
The Season of Rebirth
by Hali Denton

Waiting, watching
winter’s lingering death,
the reluctant loosening
of its cold hands from
the throat of spring,
as white yields to green,
crisp edges of ice retreat,
reveal dark winter soil starred
with pink and blue blossoms
of Glory-of-the-Snow,
while crocus and narcissus
spear upward toward the sun.

Waiting as the sun’s track
daily arcs higher, stretches
further east and west,
still waiting as sunbeams
stroke dusty windows,
finger books and pens
abandoned on the table,
with stark white light not yet
warmed or filtered by
slowly unfurling leaves.

I am still waiting for
flickering leaf shadows
to thicken into solid form,
still waiting for a familiar
footfall, voice, touch.
Not everything
is reborn in spring.

PHOTO: Glory-of-the-Snow (Chionodoxa forbesii) by Chris Burrows. Prints available at art.com.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This poem had its origins in the Port Townsend Writers’ Group, a small group of poets that met at the annual Centrum Port Townsend Writers’ Conference. We have continued to meet weekly via Zoom during the pandemic, writing to prompts and providing critiques and support of one another’s work.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hali Denton lives and works in Juneau, Alaska, where the landscape and climate are constant sources of inspiration. She is a former government employee who is enjoying her retirement participating in the vibrant local arts scene, drawing and writing, and also drinking too much coffee.