Frozen Lull

All afternoon
the tree shadows, accelerating,
lengthened
till
sunset
shot them black into infinity:
next morning
darkness
returned from the other
infinity and the
shadows caught ground
and through the morning, slowing,
hardened into noon. - "Recovery" by A.R. Ammons

Winter is the frozen lull, a time of suspended animation and stillness, a time when the sun flashes briefly from east to west, “a spark hung thin between the dark and dark” (John Updike).

Yet somewhere in the silent darkness, under the snow and frozen earth, there are bulbs and seeds waiting to sprout.  Beneath frozen ponds, under leaves and inside the stems of plants, frogs and insects succumb to the frost and wait for the thaw, while other creatures slow down… slow, slow, slow…  slowly slumbering  in their winter dens. 

journal page – 1/4/10

Winter… a time of waiting and a time for traveling in dreams that grow large as the nights are long.