North

Last week I commenced revisiting the blog backlist with a post on “The Magic Of Winter Worlds”, first posted on 21 July 2012.

The 2012 post was sparked by the poem North, which was posted on 10 July, also in 2012. North is a midwinter poem, inspired by a journey I made to the far north of Sweden.

I am intending to refeature poems as part of the Backlist series, and since this is the week of winter solstice here in NZ (and in the southern hemisphere) I feel it’s exactly the right time to post it again. 🙂

~~~

North

homes
white timbered in the south
give way to brown-red
in mid and north –
avenues of birch trees
serried lakes

an elk
runs through deep winter
the night train flares
through cuttings –
inferno cast across jagged firs
frozen earth

rushes headlong
into spring – a pied crow
solitary
above a grey field
.

(c) Helen Lowe

Published in Bravado 14

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North was first featured on the blog as part of my contribution to the Tuesday Poem community. Although the community put up its shutters some years ago now, the blog is still extant and features some wonderful poems, from ancient to modern — well worth a look for anyone who enjoys poetry:

The Tuesday Poem Blog