Poetry Night at the Writing Life, 23 November 2024

A seasonal shift leads to some new work.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Hi, everyone.

I’m getting closer to the self-publication of my first chapbook of poetry and I’m getting excited about the prospect, even if I’m blanking right now on exactly how I might sell it somewhere other than the trunk of my car or at book fairs or whatever. Now I just need to get some poems published in the good journals around the Midwest and I might be on my way.

The two poems I have on offer today cover two different topics. One of them is the slow approach of winter and how I’m perfectly happy with this. The second is… well, let’s say it’s about how the other half lives.

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Photo by Filip Bunkens on Unsplash

Waiting for The Snow

22 November 2024, Fort Madison, Iowa

I see on my big screen

A football game in Pittsburgh

And the white is obscuring the players

And gathering on their beards

And covering the field

Just like it’s covering the streets of Des Moines.

It’s cold at home in November

But there’s no sign of the cold white fluff anywhere.

My friends and coworkers look forward to a White Christmas

And dread a White Thanksgiving

As well as the lack of sun and the cold.

I say bring it on.

I still remember last October

When the mercury crept toward 90 Fahrenheit

And everything felt sticky, humid, and miserable

And I thought I was never going to feel cool ever again.

I’ll take the cold and the frigid white when it comes.