Winter Wonderland

Heavy Snowfall in A Year Gone Past                 

by Laura Jensen

Heavy snowfall in a year gone past

hammered the sudden edge

of the house foundations

to a rounder world

a whiter light after the end of day.

My favorite coat, lush sable

in color, a petty fake

that warmed me to the ears

hangs after the seasons

a beaten animal grinning buttons.

It became quite real to me

and now is matted on a hook.

How far away what mattered

has flourished without me,

along the tasty road in the wood:

clark, clark, the hidden birds call

or do wrong, do wrong, someone

do wrong, snapping apples

from out in the woodside, telling

their fathers names, pie cannonrude

barkwithfist brendanbe with cherries.

It is a vast field

where snow will fall again.

Is the vast field ownership

or a presence of mind?

Garden Path

This fall we’ve been doing a lot of farm improvement projects to recover from last year’s big flood. In September 2009 our farm was flooded in the great Georgia flood—the barn was completely submerged in water.

A huge drainage ditch was dug along one side of the property—it really feels more like a huge creek. We just finished planting it. One section was planted with monkey grass and another section with grass. It should be really pretty next year.

The photograph above was taken at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Botanical Gardens. I hope that our new path looks this good next year.