TRAVEL POEM

 

 

This beautiful poem is set in upstate NY and doesn’t involve a lot of travel, just Ricky walking his and Kevin’s dog, who has sadly passed on, near their house… But, you know, you leave the front door, you’re traveling! 

 

 

 

 

Virgin Snow in Wurtsboro

 

(For Kevin)

 

This morning,

I take Lucy for a walk

In virgin snow.

A quandary,

Because everywhere her paws

And my feet go

Disturbs the perfect whiteness

Of this virgin snow.

 

By chance though,

As we walk, a Northern wind

Begins to blow,

And fills in

The depressions where our steps

Disturbed the snow.

And beauty is restored

As luck would have it so.

 

I’m grateful,

Snow that hangs upon the air

In sunlight’s glow,

Creates a

Kind of prism, or a

Boreal rainbow.

It’s lovely,

And I hold it in my heart

Because I know…

 

That soon the

Spring will thaw the ice

And melt the snow.

 

*

 

Virgin snow,

As evanescent as

The flow’rs that grow,

Each flake unique

A One Time Only show.

They float a crystal blue

Adagio.

 

Virgin snow,

The lake is frozen, but

The ice will flow,

And those who swim

Will swim, while rowers, row.

The silence yields

To an insistent crow

As we go…

O, Virgin Snow.

 

*

 

The echoes o’er the water

Sound like cries from long ago,

Suspended

Whether frost to make 

The branches cower low,

Or mist that settles

Over Lucy’s grave

Below…

Soon snow.

Soon, virgin snow.