Let us love winter for it is the spring of genius.~Pietro Aretino
In winter I typically hover
over the abyss despair uncover
queen of the underworld in the dark hours
longing for the light, so disempowered
even though I study Persephone
I’m literal. Metaphorically
her descent makes sense. My beloved trees
unleaf and pose naked in the deep freeze
while I am buffeted by change. I cope
composing poetry of warmth and hope,
slide under quilts savvy grandmothers sewed
bequests for the long winters they forebode.