Soon I will forget again the bitterest days of the year. When the east spread a weathered hand building winter palaces out of frost. When the winds from the North harried me home and sent the shepherd flying to the hills. Ewes with Spring lambs swaying in their bellies hastened to the fold, dogs barely nipping at their heels.
Time enough for rook and raven to patrol the fields preening in purple, blues and green. They'll pick dung for beetle and worm, peck the white eyes of the stillborn. Weasels will ferret out warm afterbirths, bold and brisk as quicksilver. For now though the sharp-toothed hunters in achromatic guise are liquefying into landscapes. The prey is sparse but the food stores, full where winter has clasped the age-old, the incurable the weakened-by-hunger. And sometimes a careless mouse corridoring under the snow, watched by the ears of a fox.
Soon I will forget again all the old pains and griefs gone cold. After the child is birthed we do not dwell, and Spring's urgent emergings - up from the ground - out from the bud will send me hurtling into another year.
A Surreal Artwork by Ronald Ong is the starter for this photo prompted poem @ the Sunday Muse
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24 thoughts on “Forgetting”
Now that the snow is gone, I see all of the mice tunnels, now to the open air. Beautiful writing!
thank you
Enjoyed the poem Laura!
many thanks
We do seem to forget the toil of Winter when in the budding of Spring. An amazing write Laura! The land lays before us brilliant and closely through your poetry!
putting it all behind us with a sigh of relief – thank you for appreciating the lay of the land here – and the prompt that sparked it all
Simply breathtaking ~~~~
sigh – many thanks Helen
A veritable nature tutorial, so thoughtfully capturing the often unremarkad.
‘the often unremarked’ well put Bev – I guess as naturalist at heart I try to follow John Clare
Love all the natural references and the unsentimentality of it.
spot on and thank you for noticing – I try not to be sentimental or anthropomorphise animals –
This is so clever.
thank you, Jude
The realpolitik of the animal world, of winter, of life and death. And this! “liquefying into landscapes.”
had to reassociate myself with ‘realpolitik’ but in the power struggles of tooth and claw here so apt – thank you for your appreciation
A really wonderful poem, such great imagery. The lines about the winter palaces made me think of the scene in Dr Zhivago where the house is covered in ice. Varykino. Sigh.
glad you enjoyed this winter scape Sherry – brought in the Russian element as the Siberian fronts can stretch this far! The good and handsome doctor was far from my thoughts but such a warming idea!
What a world your word pictures have taken me into! So visual! Beautiful Laura.
And yes we’re so forgetful and become always busy with the present.
lovely to see you here again Sumana – thank you for stepping into some winter here
Yes, the looong day of the hunt is nearing its end. Thank the good Lord for helping us not join the missing prey.
this is a nature poem and to that end the hunt is never at an end!
So beautiful…spring with all its blooming and promise surely gives us blessed amnesia for a few glorious days
PoetryPix 
Now that the snow is gone, I see all of the mice tunnels, now to the open air. Beautiful writing!
thank you
Enjoyed the poem Laura!
many thanks
We do seem to forget the toil of Winter when in the budding of Spring. An amazing write Laura! The land lays before us brilliant and closely through your poetry!
putting it all behind us with a sigh of relief – thank you for appreciating the lay of the land here – and the prompt that sparked it all
Simply breathtaking ~~~~
sigh – many thanks Helen
A veritable nature tutorial, so thoughtfully capturing the often unremarkad.
‘the often unremarked’ well put Bev – I guess as naturalist at heart I try to follow John Clare
Love all the natural references and the unsentimentality of it.
spot on and thank you for noticing – I try not to be sentimental or anthropomorphise animals –
This is so clever.
thank you, Jude
The realpolitik of the animal world, of winter, of life and death. And this! “liquefying into landscapes.”
had to reassociate myself with ‘realpolitik’ but in the power struggles of tooth and claw here so apt – thank you for your appreciation
A really wonderful poem, such great imagery. The lines about the winter palaces made me think of the scene in Dr Zhivago where the house is covered in ice. Varykino. Sigh.
glad you enjoyed this winter scape Sherry – brought in the Russian element as the Siberian fronts can stretch this far! The good and handsome doctor was far from my thoughts but such a warming idea!
What a world your word pictures have taken me into! So visual! Beautiful Laura.
And yes we’re so forgetful and become always busy with the present.
lovely to see you here again Sumana – thank you for stepping into some winter here
Yes, the looong day of the hunt is nearing its end. Thank the good Lord for helping us not join the missing prey.
this is a nature poem and to that end the hunt is never at an end!
So beautiful…spring with all its blooming and promise surely gives us blessed amnesia for a few glorious days
I have amnesia till the leaves start to fall!