Winter’s Dawn
Through silent blanket mirrorless above
Morning breaks upon lonely branches
Reminding the roots and the shingles
What glories of flower are but out of season
Quiet merges inside like so many clouds
Whose ends hidden by the world’s edges
May tempt the traveler who glimpses Eden
when earth and day meet and part
Sparrows unseen chirping breach the chill
Fulsome awareness fills the mind
Rewarding the soul’s deprivation
Fore the rains reclaim the heavens
Effort’s roots planted ever in darkness
Demanding faith in future’s fancies
To bring forth eve’s fruit anew
To taste and to suffer to taste again
Deciding as one must to delight or die
In that still deeper cold or brighter heat
Or duller chill or humbler joy
that may await each earnest seeker
Amidst the dance of steps unknown
Through pregnant gloom of gray above
The light of dawn still penetrates
Rendering warm new days and songs.
