Barbara

How bittersweet it is, on winter's night,
II. Quest and Conquest
Out of the picture of life, as it were, out
"Be off!" say Winter's snows;
So you can watch me watch uplifted snow
As if your human shape were what the storm
Is the moon to grow
Floating on the sky.
Your gloved hands covering your lips' good-bye
Appendices
So, startled, quivering,
At the end of the road. Even if they are staring
snowdrops and crocuses might be fooled
Its consciousness of my white consciousness,
Choces, Mčre and Pčre, undreaming even of fields
and the numbed yards will go back undercover.
shaded by live oaks and bottlebrush trees
Stunned in their voiceless way to be alive
Introduction by Vilhjalmur Stefansson