Winter Poems
A cosy collection of poetry for warming the dark days
These poems have been inspired by taking part in Beth Kempton’s Winter Writing Sanctuary and the SoulStack by Beth Kempton Moon & Shadow one day retreat.
If you offered me eternal sun,
I would politely decline.
As joyous as the light is,
There is also a time:
for darkness
and for solitude
for quiet
for despair
for grief and death and sorrow
for rest
and for repair.
We need the blackness of the night,
to reveal the magic of the moon.
We need the winters of our lives,
to appreciate summer’s fortune.
Evergreen
When everything else is barren,
When bare branches shiver,
And even the house plants have withered and died,
You stand resistant,
A beacon of hope,
Even in the darkest of days, there is still room for growth.
And if it is true for you,
Maybe it can be true for me too.
Knitted
When I was a child my mum knitted jumpers:
itchy and uncool.
All I wanted was a shop-bought sweatshirt:
trendy, branded, like everyone else.
Now I can afford all the labels I like,
But I’d swap every designer piece,
For a few more years of those hand-made jumpers.
Shadow
Sometimes I feel like a shadow.
You see the outline of me,
but never the detail.
You see the space I take up,
but never the face.
You see the movement and think I am free,
But you miss the tethers at my feet.
Snow - the great eraser
It’s a blank canvas inviting you to make your mark.
The pleasure of being the first to stamp across it.
But not for long, not forever,
For words in the snow are impermanent
Melted in the sun or covered by the next storm.
What if we lived like the snow?
Making our way fearlessly,
Spilling onto the page for the simple pleasure of creating
Acting for the moment.
Knowing nothing lasts.
Winter of Life
Senses dimming,
On shaky legs,
Old age stumbles in.
The harsh winter of life,
Where cold nips bones,
And days shorten,
There’s an invitation to rest,
As memories sparkle like Christmas lights,
The last glimmer of illumination,
in the encroaching darkness.
Snow halted all our plans
The roads were blocked,
The schools were shut.
We stayed inside
And cosied up.
And all the things we had to do
were left undone.
Yet when life began to thaw again
It mattered none.
Humanity too busy to pause and rest,
but nature intervenes
because nature knows best.
© Leona Marie, 2024