solstice

More snow, more overcast, more cold.  I have vacuumed and done laundry and other nesting activities, which are other things one does after several days of snowy weather. I even re-arranged my nests, the ones I have found on walks etc over the years, lined them up and took a family photo, they are so beautiful and messy. It's dark here even in the afternoon and I'm learning again.

Snowdrops

Louise Gluck

Do you know what I was, how I lived? You know

what despair is; then

winter should have meaning for you.

I did not expect to survive,

earth suppressing me. I didn't expect

to waken again, to feel

in damp earth my body

able to respond again, remembering

after so long how to open again

in the cold light

of earliest spring -- 

afraid, yes, but among you again

crying yes risk joy

in the raw wind of the new world. 

head case

Archaic Fragment

I was trying to love matter.

I taped a sign over the mirror:

You cannot hate matter and love form.

It was a beautiful day, though cold.

This was, for me, an extravagantly emotional gesture.

........your poem:

tried, but could not.

I taped a sign over the first sign:

Cry, weep, thrash yourself, rend your garments--

List of things to love:

dirt, food, shells, human hair.

........said

tasteless excess. Then I 

rent the signs.

AIAIAIAI cried

the naked mirror.

Louise Gluck

from Averno