Mountain Blue [Haiku]

Photograph of blue skies over a small roadside stop in the Andes between Cuzco and Puno.
mountain skies:
fade to a blue so deep
it chills the bones.

Cold Creek [Haiku]

Photograph taken near the start of the Mae Yen Waterfall trek at Pai, Thailand.
butterflies dance
beside a cold creek,
near sun-warmed leaves.

Alone in the Cold [Haiku]

solitary duck
huddles with itself,
against the cold.

A Walk in Winter Woods [Free Verse]

A photograph from the Roswell Greenway Trail in Roswell, Georgia, north of Atlanta.
In Winter,
when blue sky shows
between the twiggy,
bare branches,
the forest is not so
claustrophobic,
but sound and wind,
alike,
carry through.

A mind can roam
between the bracing
breezes.

Fake Snow,Real Cold [Haiku]

fake snow from
fountain spray in wind;
the cold is real.

Candles [Free Verse]

Ancient cathedral: 
pews & altar
long gone.
Cold air creeps
through cracks
to flicker candles,
Candles lit for
those long dead —
though long remembered —
on a cold, winter day.

The Fray [Lyric Poem]

Rainy December day
blows in - not long to stay.
From season to season,
without any reason,
sometimes we feel the fray.

“Hoar-Frost” by Amy Lowell [w/ Audio]

In the cloud-grey mornings
I heard the herons flying;
And when I came into my garden,
My silken outer-garment
Trailed over withered leaves.
A dried leaf crumbles at a touch,
But I have seen many Autumns
With herons blowing like smoke
Across the sky.

“The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

PROMPT: Cold Weather

How do you feel about cold weather?

In the abstract, sitting here in the tropics, I’m fond of the idea of winter. When I’m in cold weather, I’d prefer not to be.