All Winter Light

The beauty of winter is all in the light
that glistens from all of the snow,
a shimmering glare of all glittering white,
a flashing and flickering blaze all aflow,
all the sun-diamond drifts in staccato delight,
as splashing streaks sparkle and shine all below,
all lucent the speckles resplendent in flight,
in a blinding all brilliant tableau,
we behold in the cold His gold all aglow.

But the glimmering snow illumes all in the night,
the all-luminous moon looming bright,
until soon all the ghouls of the gloom start to grow
and come calling all nocturnal shadows to show,
all the tall sleeted trees cast a pall to afright,
barren limp lurid limbs swaying all to and fro,
as somber shade silhouettes all silent and slow,
come to doom with their tombs all in tow,
to consume us and all winter’s beauty with woe.

So do come and turn from all sad memory’s sight,
don’t sucuumb to the shadows from all long ago,
of dark nights and black clouds all the cold winds would blow;
come with me to all winter’s delight,
to the vast visible radiance that makes all all right,
to the riotous spectrum all bright on the snow,
to the luster in winter of the joy we all know,
of the light and the love we all owe,
all the rest we’ll forever forego.

                                   -- by Pete Voelz     1998

(With a bow to Matthew Arnold.)