RIVERWOODS/TAMWORTH POEMS: RELUCTANCE

RELUCTANCE

How can I bear to think

That one day I will not see

Chocorua’s winter-white peak

And the Three Sisters Ridge,

That one year without my note

Pine limbs will bend low

And birches make their bows

Under the weight of snow,

That I will not add my tracks

To those of the snow-shoe hare,

The single-footing fox

And the high-bounding deer

While ice particles chime

In the breath of the winter wind

And cardinals still proclaim

Their expectations of spring?

(February, 2014)