winter woodland

now is the time to explore you
in misty light so low
you become one inky shadow

birch, ash, beech and oak let go
of leafy glamour long ago
abandoning piles of copper and gold

now your copses are barefaced and bold
your glimmering gnarly branches hold
mulchy aromas of moss and fungus

I long to see you bathing languorous
in myrrhy moon and silver scent of stars

come and explore me
in this misty light so low
be embraced by my inky shadow

my trees have all let go
their leafy glamour long ago
abandoned it in piles of copper and gold

my copses are barefaced and bold
my glimmering gnarly branches hold
clouds of moss and fungus

come, see me bathe languorous
in myrrh of moon and silver-scented stars

Kim M. Russell, 5th December 2019

Image result for Clearing in the Forest caspar david friedrich
‘Clearing in the Forest’ by Caspar David Friedrich  – image found on Wikimedia Commons

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: O Apostrophe!, also linked to earthweal open link weekend #47

Amaya is back with a challenging prompt, in which we’ll be meeting the bar with poetic apostrophe. I love what she says about her first thought when considering the word ‘apostrophe’ being Frank Zappa – so was mine! (“Watch out where the huskies go, and don’t you eat that yellow snow”!)

Amaya has given us a comprehensive explanation of poetic apostrophe, as well as examples from Emily Dickinson and Eric Pankey.

The challenge is a two-part prompt:

  1. Write a poem using apostrophe; we can name our objects/recipients or choose to be more cryptic.
  2. This part is optional, or we can skip the first part and just share this portion. Write a response from the perspective of your objects/recipients, which will, in essence, also use apostrophe.

37 thoughts on “winter woodland”

  4. Kim, your descriptions are exquisite, and I love the way the woods reflected back to you. There is an unsaid message here with the reflection, that you and the woods know each other well. Also, there is a lyrical quality to your poem, where the two could be singing back and forth to each other. Well-met challenge!

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  7. Bare trees are sad yet stoic, and in the deep silence of winter they are much in need of conversation and companionship. You provide both in the most lovely of ways.

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  10. Pingback: winter woodland — writing in north norfolk – Superlative Deviation

  16. Nice sense of welcome and sanctuary here, even in winter or especially so. The division of address works well as you structured it here; the parallel structure of the stanzas leaves us to wonder if it is reflection or echo in the second part.

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  17. What a beautiful poem to read in conjunction with Sherry’s, Kim. I too am enjoying the trees! I love the form of the poem and the repeated image of ‘letting go/of leafy glamour long ago.’
    I also really love these lines:
    ‘I long to see you bathing languorous
    in myrrhy moon and silver scent of stars’

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  19. I can’t say I fully understand Amaya’s challenge, but as an encounter of minds, I love where the poem takes us, from human to tree realms, or to that place where they meet and greet. I’ve been walking much there of late and finding less and less of my human world in the result. Apparent outsides melt into a silvery interior. – Brendan

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