17 Comments

I held my breath through part of this. Is that a chair frozen in the lake?

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This is a well-crafted poem about learning the limits of one's world. Great inversion of Roethke in the second stanza to bring us this gem of wisdom from experience: 'To learn by going ... where not to go.' (I've shortened it slightly) Good stuff!

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Fabulous frozen photos!

Beautiful ice swept poem

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So much to think about in this poem.

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I believe cold fog rising from the page and photos.

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Smart man. The picture of you, or was that an alien, as you were so covered up. Stay warm - inside. But I have to say the pictures were beautiful. Thank you for braving the cold.

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"I still

felt the cold claw of death on my face,"

I feel it too! What a powerful image.

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wonderful !

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A baleful sun if I ever saw one! Love the pic with the overturned chair. Also the poem. Stay frosty, but stay warm!

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as if the quality of warmth

has been extracted and sunk

below the appearance of it - such an image! I could feel it - cold and bleak.

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Given the choice on a morning that is cold unto suffering, do you generally lean staying in or going out? Or is it a day to day decision?

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Day to day, poem to poem, and the poem has its own parallel reality that may or may not align.

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You orthogonal rebel...

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I do generally tend towards going out. But the Montreal winter says haha.

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'Roethke said to learn by going where

to go, but sometimes it's where not to' .

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A pause to reflect.

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Pick your spot!

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