stay at home

gentle chill inside

outside arctic cold, icy rain crusting snow adding glittering brilliance

but also added incentive to remain

indoors

taste of abundance

drink the wind

swallow gulps of snow

test the grit of sunflower

marvel at the texture of honeycomb

stick out your tongue to catch rain

taste generous Nature

then revel, appreciate, cherish

work to protect

sky rivers buffeted

our sky rivers buffeted, dislodged

from paths we on earth have come

to expect

changes in our weather from above

and beyond bring snow yet again

in the middle of april

and yet again the knowledge

that, despite our fussing, nature

will do as nature wills

as it weaves the world we live in

goosebumps

i remember snow in late May

near Williamstown, Massachusetts

but here in western Oregon

heavy, white flakes seem unseasonal

this late in March—the daffodils

and crocuses shiver in the chill

new blades of grass cower

as do Oregonians unaccustomed

to such inclement weather

imitation flattery

snow piles remain from roof-fall

or where the shadows of pine

denied sun’s warming

but on our slope of foothills

of the coastal range

many piles stand as rugged models

of the low mountains themselves

languid dawn

the blue-white of morning

snow draping evergreen

brittle-stocked queen anne’s lace

woodpile beside the barn

stubbled slope of hill

neighbor’s distant roof

quiet, i watch the eerie blue

diffuse to nearer white

as the sunrise stretches

toward a languid dawn

tracks left visible

 tiny tracks of animals

skittering atop the crusted

crystalline snow

tofu seed

tofu in the bird feeder

a new experience

not quite cherished as yet

but evidently intriguing

especially as nearly all else

is covered by inches of snow

catabatic wind

 as earth rotates and sun ‘sets’

night cools mountain-tops

slopes chill the air above their ice

thin molecules huddle, dense

heavier and heavier until, catabatic

they gain speed and strength

from gravity and plunge down

disturbing precarious layers

of snow, triggering avalanche

wind-whispered promise

 despite the cold

that burrows under the skin

to gnaw at the marrow

in my bones

the wind that lifts

and swirls sparkling flakes

tells me the snow will cling

to the mountains

and, in the spring, melt

as water for crops

a gift longer-term

and worth my shivering

            mjNordgren  12/26/2022  Omaha

o’s

 slender hope in oregon

to see leonid meteor shower

our night skies in november

are nearly always misty

if not pouring down rain

but the wet beats

shoveling snow off the roof

as we did in ohio

unwarranted conclusion

unwarranted conclusion

full moon and frost on pine limbs

stubbled lawn glints blue-white

convincing me just after midnight

of the season’s unpredicted first snow

know thy place

at the shore of trillium lake

with mt. hood reflected

in its majestic semi-snow of july

takes one’s breath in awe

as nature should when she

displays her beauty

or her power