David W. Landrum

Cryophilia
A preference for cold temperatures.
               --The American Heritage Medical Dictionary 

I love the winter:  cold weather and snow.
When autumn wanes, I never whine or cry.
The earth is best when winter breezes blow,

drifts catch the streetlights so that sparkles flow
innumerably, like stars up in the sky.
I love the winter:  cold weather and snow.

Here in the northern climates, where we know
that sometimes for five months the flakes will fly
and earth will rest as winter breezes blow,

we can rejoice, appreciate the flow
and flux of seasons. No need to decry
the winter months, the cold weather and snow,

the quiet, earth’s bridal veil, chiaroscuro
of sky and ground; extended night, short day.
The earth is best when winter breezes blow,

 when sun shines pale, ponds freeze, a vast tableau
of ice, hard earth—the season when I say,
“I love the winter:  cold weather and snow.
The earth is best when winter breezes blow.”

David W. Landrum’s poetry has appeared journals and magazines in the US, UK, Canada, Europe, and in English-language journals in India, Singapore, Nepal, and Hong Kong. His book of poems, Tawney Grammar, is available through Barefoot Muse Press.