WINTER STILLNESS

Out my kitchen window, all is quiet

In this midwinter darkness before dawn

Not a bird or rabbit about

Although footprints in the snow

Show me that they are nesting nearby

Hibernating like bears on this winter day

Bundled together against the cold.

And even the wind is not stirring the trees

As all is frozen and still

The sun is not yet visable

But slight light below the gray sky

Gives promise for the day

The brown shrubs and stubs

Stick up from the ground

Where in spring

Green leaves and flowers abound

But not today.....

One color that is still around

Is the prairie grass, which has not

Shed its color of ashen brown

Along with the fir and birch trees

Which give some delight

Their needles and trunks green and white

The chickadees that play in my bushes

Have gone

Their urge to flee, feels just like mine

But on my kitchen window sill

Are the paperwhites I planted in early December

Blooming for the first time today

So a ray of sunshine comes into my heart

And now, with joy, I begin my winter day.