One Poem by Alan Catlin in Twelve Parts

 

Brief Meditations Twelve Times

 

 

1- 

Sudden cold wind; 

umbrellas turned inside out

 

 

2- 

Ice jam on the Mohawk breaks, 

so loud startled flocks rise 

as one

 

 

3- 

Melting snow angels; 

puddles where the wings 

should be

 

 

4- 

Bare tree limbs slick 

with frozen rain. 

Street lights add 

a luminous glow

 

 

5- 

Rain slowly changing 

over to snow. Slick ice 

in between

 

 

6- 

Sundial in the snow; 

time stopped until 

Spring

 

 

7- 

City-wide blackout; 

the silence of the snow

 

 

8- 

Frozen tidal pools: 

bulrushes and panic 

grass marooned in ice

 

 

9- 

Freize of ice scars 

cracked windows; 

Winter moving in

 

 

10- 

All the roads blocked, 

no snow plows out yet; 

eerie how quiet it is

 

 

11- 

Slow day in neighbourhood 

bar; smell of burnt 

coffee and beer

 

 

12- 

Black cat on radiator 

cover absorbing all 

the heat

Alan Catlin has published dozens of chapbooks and full-length books. He latest published works include How Will the Heart Endure (about life and work of Diane Arbus( from Kelsay Books and listening to the Moonlight Sonata from Impspired (UK).