And so on the way down to Jersey to visit with friends, we were given a visual gift of the previous days ice storm, and what a gift. The pictures work hard to capture the awesome beauty of the ice coated landscape but fall very short. It was like looking at something in a National Geographic Magazine. Here is the paradox of nature at her best and worst. Serendipity in action. I doubt if I'll be lucky enough to ever witness this type of indescribable magnificence again.


















Awestruck

Noonday we sailed on an arctic sea
shimmering with diamond dust,
frozen as far as our eyes could see.
Thoughts came in visual fragments-
cold, crystaline, slivers of silver
icicles pirouetting in rays of light
spearing through broken clouds-
and held us stunned; breathless;
witnesses to the whimsy of God.

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And here's my response to Poetry Thursday's optional challenge (a bit of a downer, I know, but still a poem. yay, I'm writing again!!)

The Body Knows

The body knows the invisible ink
of our betrayals, each abuse indelible,
and still it serves for long years
until, one day, it breaks.

The body knows the braille
of our excess - the fast food dinners
that pad our waists; the after work
cocktail rituals; the cigarettes;
and still it serves for long years
until, one day, it breaks.

The body knows the written legacy
of our ancestors, their DNA
thumbprints recorded in our genes,
and still it serves for long years
until, one day, it breaks.

Why do we rewrite our body
until, one day, it breaks?