Month: December 2016
Winter Morning
All night the wind swept over the house
And through our dream
Swirling the snow up through the pines,
Ruffling the white, ice-capped clapboards,
Rattling the windows,
Rustling around and below our bed
So that we rode
Over wild water
In a white ship breasting the waves.
We rode through the night
On green, marbled
Water, and, half-waking, watched
The white, eroded peaks of icebergs
Sail past our windows;
Rode out the night in that north country,
And awoke, the house buried in snow,
Perched on a
Chill promontory, a
Giant’s tooth
In the mouth of the cold valley,
Its white tongue looped frozen around us,
The trunks of tall birches
Revealing the rib cage of a whale
Stranded by a still stream;
And saw, through the motionless baleen of their branches,
As if through time,
Light that shone
On a landscape of ivory,
A harbor of bone.
– William Jay Smith
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31st December – On This Day In History
Born:
1937 Anthony Hopkins (actor)
Died:
1994 Woody Strode (American Footballer)
On This Day:
1968 Flight of the first supersonic airliner (Russian Tupolev TU-144)
Have a good Saturday, 31st December
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Winter Trees
All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
– William Carlos Williams
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30th December – On This Day In History
Born:
1865 Rudyard Kipling (author – Jungle Book)
Died:
2006 Saddam Hussein (dictator of Iraq, executed)
On This Day:
1922 The Soviet Union becomes a federation of states
Have a good Friday, 30th December
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Winter Wonderland
There are strange and mysterious sounds
When the winds of winter blow,
The long nights are crystal clear and cold,
And the fields and meadows are covered with snow.
The stars are frosty against the sky,
And the wind’s whistle is shrill,
As the snow blows against the house
And drifts against the hill.
Yet, I like to see during the winter
A white carpet on the ground,
To plod aimlessly in the deep snow,
where deer tracks abound.
I like to feel the stillness
Of a crisp winter’s night,
Watching a full moon rise over the horizon,
Exposing a winter wonderland beautiful and bright.
– Joseph T Renaldi
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29th December – On This Day In History
Born:
1947 Ted Danson (actor)
Died:
2012 Tony Grieg (former English cricket captain and commentator)
On This Day:
1845 Texas admitted as the 28th State of the USA
Have a good Thursday, 29th December
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A Winter’s Tale
Yesterday the fields were only grey with scattered snow,
And now the longest grass-leaves hardly emerge;
Yet her deep footsteps mark the snow, and go
On towards the pines at the hills’ white verge.
I cannot see her, since the mist’s white scarf
Obscures the dark wood and the dull orange sky;
But she’s waiting, I know, impatient and cold, half
Sobs struggling into her frosty sigh.
Why does she come so promptly, when she must know
That she’s only the nearer to the inevitable farewell;
The hill is steep, on the snow my steps are slow—
Why does she come, when she knows what I have to tell?
– David Herbert Lawrence
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28th December – On This Day In History
Born:
1953 Richard Clayderman (pianist)
Died:
1734 Rob Roy
On This Day:
1846 Iowa becomes the 29th State of the USA
Have a good Wednesday, 28th December
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Winter Night
Snow swept the world from end to end.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned.
As during summer midges swarm
To beat their wings against a flame
Out in the yard the snowflakes swarmed
To beat against the window pane
The blizzard sculptured on the glass
Designs of arrows and of whorls.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned.
Distorted shadows fell
Upon the lighted ceiling:
Shadows of crossed arms,of crossed legs-
Of crossed destiny.
Two tiny shoes fell to the floor
And thudded.
A candle on a nightstand shed wax tears
Upon a dress.
All things vanished within
The snowy murk-white,hoary.
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned.
A corner draft fluttered the flame
And the white fever of temptation
Upswept its angel wings that cast
A cruciform shadow
It snowed hard throughout the month
Of February, and almost constantly
A candle burned on the table;
A candle burned.
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27th December – On This Day In History
Born:
1822 Louis Pasteur (inventor – pasteurization)
Died:
2012 Norman Schwarzkopf (US General – Desert Storm)
On This Day:
1934 Persia is declared Iran (by the Shah)
Have a good Tuesday, 27th December
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