Winter Silence

🌲 “Winter is a season of recovery and preparation.” – Paul Theroux 🌲

Early morning stillness:

From a photograph

to digital art

In this frozen winter

I would like to decorate the silence

that stills the start of the day.

Perhaps, the sole bird's coo

will wake the chill or

bells will dance in the wind.

Nature knows the next step.

Meanwhile, the house is heated. 

The fireplace stirs with warmth

and the day begins.

©CVarsalona, 2025

(Credit and thanks to Linda Gregg for the italicized line below.)

🌲🌲🌲

     Winter Love by Linda Gregg

I would like to decorate this silence,   

but my house grows only cleaner

and more plain. The glass chimes I hung   

over the register ring a little

when the heat goes on.

I waited too long to drink my tea.   

It was not hot. It was only warm.

🌲🌲🌲

Special Invitation to Slicers: I am hosting Poetry Friday on February 7th at my Beyond LiteracyLink blog. Create a love note, valentine, poem, digital artwork, etc. I will create a padlet, titled Heartnotes for interested writers. Join me as I honor Valentine's Day, a love-note to the rest of the year. (Jo Lightfoot)

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for providing writing space for reflective writers from around the globe.

Springlike Day in Late Winter

Nature often presents us with a loving gift. This week, we will enjoy the warmth of springlike weather. While entering our community the scene below was so inviting that I had to stop and capture the late winter scene. I hope you experience something similar. Springlike days are an amazing opportunity to pause and reflect on life.  Does your park bench, front porch, or patio await you? Take advantage of the gift nature bestows this week in Northern Virginia. Next week, there will be huge dips in temperatures just when I thought winter would wave goodbye.

springlike days

bud with excitement

pause and reflect

©CVarsalona, 2024

Day 13

This Slice of Life post is offered to

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Story Challenge, 2024.

Beautiful Change

"Spring is a reminder of how beautiful change can truly be."

-unknown author

This Wednesday, Margaret Simon, posted a beautiful rainbow collage collection, Lake Fausse Pointe trail photo that she photographed (see below). You can also see Margaret's draft poem here. She asked those interested to write a small poem and post it on her blog, This Photo Wants to be a Photo.

I started writing #smallpoems to match Margaret's photo with the quick write below.

Photo by Margaret Simon

A Seasonal Unveiling

spring quietly flowered

rainbow colors adorned trails

winter stepped back

new arrivals made their way

©CV, 2023, quick write, small poem

Then, I decided to write etherees for this month's writing challenge from the Poetry Princesses. This ten-line form begins with a single syllable, and each line expands by one syllable until the tenth line has ten. The Poetry Princesses continued with their 2023 theme of transformation. You can find written etherees from the Poetry Sisters and others at Tanita Davis' blog site: fiction, instead of lies!}. They will also be on social media under the hashtag, #PoetrySisters.

Spring

flowered

gracing earth's

well-trodden path.

Winter sighed, stepped back, 

gently passed its baton, 

urging seasonal changes. 

Windsong breathed in freshness; exhaled

softly tossing nature's artifacts.

Spring smiled and prepared to awaken life.

©CV, 2023, etheree poem

I also wrote a modified etheree for last week's Poetry Friday & 16th Annual March #SOLSC! #SOL23 Day 23. You can access that here. I planned on refining it but I never found the time to do so.

Spring is a season of renewal and hope. May springtime 2023  open doors to new possibilities.

**********************

It's time to join Poetry Friday Roundup. Thank you author/poet/educator, Mary Lee Hahn, for hosting Poetry Friday this week. Click here.

Logo by Linda Mitchell

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for providing a meeting place for reflective writers around the globe. I am offering this slice for Day 30 of the 16th Annual SOLSC! #SOL23 March Writing Challenge.