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December Storms
With shorter days and longer nights
came winter’s bleakness all-too soon.
Dark water gleams with thin ice floes
reflecting the cold winter moon.
Lake Michigan has many moods;
now, waves pile up and soon begin
to pummel piers, then breach the shore.
Today those heavy gales came in
from northern lakes; they send stout ships
in search of harbor, heeding shoals.
This is the time that does depress
all land-bound, small-craft sailors’ souls.
I watch the swarm of fussing gulls;
they wheel about, then dive and soar.
Now, heavy snowfall dims my view,
brought in by raging storms that roar
toward the shore. I fight their force
at every step with heaving lungs.
The angry lake--her leaping waves—
those gusts now shriek in hellish tongues,
then rush the dunes, brown grassy slopes
and bend my poplars in assault
with force eight on the Beaumont scale.
I turn toward our house, then halt—
Although still safe from water’s reach,
it’s well within the grasp of storm
that tears away the boat house roof;
lights go off, yet the house is warm,
but May is far away. I dream
of sails filled with a springtime breeze
on calm Lake Michigan, without
bleak clouds and winter’s mental freeze.
Comments
chima ononogbu
Mon, 2020-12-14 08:49
Hi Van
This piece is a galore of images lushly woven to strike up imaginative hunger and take readers on a journey of nature's endowment. Nice one. Look forward to seeing more of it. Thanks.
Bathe yourself with poetry and let the world go to pieces.
scribbler
Mon, 2020-12-14 10:09
I
have never been to the great lakes but now feel as if I have seen them them in winter's fury
VanRyan
Mon, 2020-12-14 12:12
Hi Scribbler,
thanks for the comment. Yeah, Lake Michigan can be bad, and Superior is worse, as many a saltwater sailors would tell you, but they are great for sailing--during the summer. Thanks very much. Van
Geezer
Mon, 2020-12-14 11:03
Yep...
I've been to Buffalo in the deep of a winter storm; and it's as bad as they say. I don't know what persuades people to live there, other than the desire to prove themselves to be one most stubborn people in the Noreastern hemi-sphere. A very good description of a tempest on the Great Lakes. ~ Geez.
.
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
VanRyan
Mon, 2020-12-14 12:11
Hi Geezer;
right you are. Buffalo is about as cold as it gets here in the States. Still, it's nearness to Niagara Falls (some 21 to 28 miles depend on whether you go to the US or Canadian side of the falls) makes living there desirable, for some of us. Thanks for the nice comment, sir. Van
VanRyan
Mon, 2020-12-14 11:40
Hello, and thank you, Chimaono
I'm so glad you like the picture of a winter storm over the lake I have painted. Thank you my friend. Van
VanRyan
Tue, 2020-12-15 18:26
Ah,Thalassa!
Just about to shut the computer down for the night, I should have missed reading your wonderful comment before my bedtime. Longfellow, huh? Well, thank you, dear lady, and bless your generous heart. Happy Holidays to you. Van