Growing up on an island and living here most of my life has provided an opportunity to be close to nature, the changing seasons, the wind, the rain, the snow, the bush, the fields, the wildlife.  The relationship is so intimate that nature is in a way andromorphic, suggesting physical intimacy at times.  The closeness I feel, and the phenomenon of the changing seasons inspired this group of poems.

October
The water is charcoal grey,
chopped and angry
with your turbulent attitude.

The trees have received
their coded message,
the harbinger of dormancy.

Birds too know
somewhere within
their small black eyes,
drunk with food,
amid their petulant rituals,
that the corn is
through.

Everywhere it is
soon time.
Frogs will fold themselves into the mud
beneath the marsh,
and the heron, too, will soon be gone.

Night.
Your chilled air whispers autumn. 

November
you wail about
keening over rooftops
feigning your angst
replete with the knowledge
that your tempest
will strengthen as the cold
winds of December begin to blow

I have waited for you
In the lengthening shadows
Desperate and lonely
And now that I have sobered
You appear
Gesture in great gusts
To your cold bedroom
How can I say no
How can I not be ushered forth

As your strident arms open
I acquiesce

December
You blow the freezing rain
into small fists which bang on my windows.
Then you fall away to gather once again
in great heaves
your unrelenting armies.

Your delicate fingers
curl around the doorknob,
but cannot turn it
though your numbing perfume
intoxicates
as it wafts under sills.

You bluster, you shrill;
I succumb to your many moods.
You soothe,
remind me that I am safe within
from the recalcitrant cold.

I am driven even more
knowing I can never have you,
that moment where
I am forever spared
from your icy hands.

January
You move in as my lover
so that every conversation
must now
be choreographed,
must be agreed upon
as we are a couple

At first your moods
are propitious:
we cozy to the fireplace
at your implacable weather,
drink wine

But then there is
your constant chilling
I can go nowhere
in freedom
without your constant dictates.

Wherever I may seek refuge
I am at your
chilled ascendency

February
The dial on the thermometer
Slides lower and lower
Irrevocably
I cannot stop its succession
Into the chaos
Into the void
Were I to step outside
You would surely freeze me
Where I stood

All I wanted was your
Undying
And you, unyielding,
Hasten my dissolution
I still love you …
No matter what
As your cold winds scream
Over my grave.

March
It struck me
I know what I miss
The blackness at 5 P.M.
Like a liquid containing
All that I own – what I hold
Dear
Safe in some cellar – aging
Wonderfully – self contained
A universe unto itself

But now at 7:09
I am vulnerable
Exposed to the warmth
Of spring
To the sun
And her merciless agency
So that these words may already be
faded
Unable to reflect
What was on my mind
At all

April
It is still so cold
Your frozen lips on my neck
Make me shiver
But it is mid-April

I am aware of your subtleties
Your deceit
The last chance to invade
My warmth
In fact, I feel compassion
Where the sun melts your façade
I have the urge to replenish –
already miss you

Your attempts to dissuade
Are increasingly futile
I have to say good bye
I’m sorry – it’s me, not you
One last kiss is all
I ask

May
Then I relent
Spring and your warmth
Nothing but seduction
For just when I think I
Have you
A cool breeze blows away
your caress
And I am left empty –
Arms outstretched
Pleading like a child

When I undress
To your fervor
I am left alone – naked,
Completely undone
By this whisper of
summer

June
And it is summer … finally
The sun refuses to hide behind
the earth, behind the moon
And all this light, so apparent
Is at first disconcerting …
(Please leave me to myself)
Yet the beckoning warmth
propitiates like a magic spell

We are caught up in the glory
even though we once disbelieved
your promise
And now we are intimate –
The threshold
so many times shunned
Has been compromised
lest we be disillusioned,
full of empty love

I want you, us, to last forever
like the affair we have just endured,
lust satisfied, fooling ourselves into thinking
that it is actually real

July
Although I promised myself
not to proclaim your heat oppressive,
here I am – buying ice at the Trading Post
You go so well mixed with
a double Caesar.

I bask, trying hard
not to remember.
Yet you do not let up,
and I have to retire to
where I am cooler.

Christ, I love you,
but do you have to come
all at once?
Could you not pace your
torrid self so that I could at least
take a breath?

So, it’s all or nothing,
no chance for divorce.
I love you; I hate you …
Please stay forever.

August
now it gets out of hand
this orgy of heat
we cannot help
pawing at each other in public
people turn away red-faced
it is all I ever wanted – the antipathy
of everlasting love
could ask for nothing more

yet we move as one in
the benevolent breeze
your warm breath kisses –
I do not know how much more
I can take of your felicity
my heart beating for two

the days, all consuming,
continually drift through each other
abducting our identity
so that we become gone –
absorbed into
the waning light

September
we knew all along
that this would happen
could not last
the infatuation delirious
and short-lived
better we end it now
than live together in anguish

we breath our last breath
and float down to earth
like so many others
i have wondered for a lifetime
what it would be like
what other form my body might take
in this subtle sting of air

it is so intensely quiet
even though everything is changing
everything becoming
undone
so many colors
the hot and cold of things
crimson spirits streak the
evening sky
as we escape this place