We wait while the land prepares for the season,
waiting for ice-canos and viewing crystalline cracks in ponds.
The trees are ready for the white tufts of winter
to settle on their branches
as we anticipate the shifting landscape to arrive.
The changes can come slow and steady,
or all of a sudden, when the world is transformed
by instantaneous storms.
We wait until the land is shaken up
by the next phase in the cycle,
to be covered in a new experience—
dazzling cold sheets, glass-like layers,
or soft points of fluffy star-shaped lattices.
The wondrous time we call winter asks for exploration,
for us to see the shining, stand-still, frozen parts of the earth
in their glorious slow-motion multitudes of silence,
save for the rustling sound
of hiking through the deepened, soft ground,
and the breath of wind dashing through leafless trees,
and the songs of over-wintering birds,
creating harmonies for soft-stepping forest-travelers.
