I was in the mood for a winter poem for today's Mindful Monday post. I looked for something spare, ancient, Zen-like, and haiku-y. Instead, I found a contemporary, cranky, tragicomic poem whose vivid images, seemingly straight out of Fargo, made me laugh for some dark reason. Enjoy!
A Severe Lack Of Holiday Spirit by Amy Gerstler I dread the icy white concussion of winter. Each snowfall demands panic, like a kidnapper's hand clapped over my chapped mouth. Ice forms everywhere, a plague of glass. Christmas ornaments' sickly tinkle makes my molars ache. One pities the anemic sun come January. Trees go skeletal. Children born in the chilly months are apt to stammer. People hit the sauce in a big way all winter. Amidst blizzards they wrestle unsuccessfully with the dark comedy of their lives, laughter trapped in their frigid gizzards. Meanwhile, the mercury just plummets, like a migrating duck blasted out of the sky by some hunter in a cap with fur earflaps.
...
What are you noticing today about your experience of winter or the holidays?
...
for Mindful Monday
© December 29, 2014, post: Donna Pierce
Source: Gerstler, Amy. Medicine. NY: Penguin Books, 2000.
Photo credit: "Christmas Continued," Jeff Golden, 2009.
Donna this poem is utterly PRICELESS. In fact, I’m pretty sure it has displaced Wallace Stevens’ “The Snowman” as my favorite winter poem, though you might want to google or bing up the latter, which is still pretty … arresting.
Yours, though, I’m gonna print off separately & keep. Thanks!
J.
Glad you like it! I almost went with “The Snowman” because of its Zen-emptiness tones, but once I came across Gerstler’s gem, there was simply no contest!
I would bet Gerstler has a “histrionic personality disorder” which makes her my kinda gal! Thanks for making me smile.