Forested deep purity
Dusted with a winter’s glow;
Crystalline perpetuity
Takes its place in nature’s show.
Fresh sunlight plays with diamonds soft
That glisten as they sing
In silent awe that drifts aloft
A peaceful offering.
Great ice sheets yield to spring’s sweet kiss
And snow gives way to rain;
Arboreal chants blend fragrant mists
That flood the fertile plain.
New fauna dance with life unbound
And quiver as they sleep,
Loathe to miss one sight or sound,
Or lose one joy so deep.
Streams trickle, tumbling, giggling down
And nourish all they meet;
Young bucks do battle with their crowns,
Their heroes to unseat.
Fierce summer heat strips arid earth
Of all that’s failed to thrive;
Refreshing flows gain countless worth
For all to stay alive.
Massed Shady greens turn mighty light
Into life’s currency;
Frantic deals done day and night
In this dependency.
Old summer takes his bow in style
With whirls of amber shades.
Harvests picked and safely piled
As daily brightness fades.
Most heed the warnings in the sky
Of winter’s coming wrath:
In insulated sanctuary lie
Or take a southward path.
And so the cycle runs again
It’s glorious phases through;
Enjoy their transient beauty, then,
And savour them anew.
Ben Zwycky is an English ex-pat now living in the Czech Republic. He has a master’s degree in chemical engineering and worked a wide variety of jobs before settling down as a freelance proofreader and translator together with his Czech wife, who literally fell into his arms in the year 2000 and with whom he now has five children. He has published two novels, Nobility Among Us and Beyond the Mist (currently being serialised in the Sci Phi Journal), and one poetry collection, Selected Verse – Faith and Family. You can find out more about him and his work at www.benzwycky.com
Featured Image: “The Archway” by William Bradford