Full Snow Moon
The moon is full again. A latticed frost
clings to my window, while the crystal crust
of Lake Saint Louis glows as if embossed
with pearls this February night. It must
be twenty-five below. I search for words
of warmth the Guaraní alone must know
to trace their land of butterflies and birds
I made my own a mere four weeks ago.
She waxes and she wanes. She's counted on,
through human inconsistency and pride,
to reverence the rising sun each dawn
and keep her promise to the ocean tide.
But Luna’s is a distant, lurid face,
her silent O no answer as to how
on earth I’ll ever find the grit and grace
to muddle through to spring, one moon from now.
[I wrote this poem following a visit to the Iguazú Falls [click HERE for more information] in Argentina and Brazil in January 2004. It was first published in Lucid Rhythms in 2008, and later in my second full length collection, Glad and Sorry Seasons, Biblioasis Press, Canada, 2014]
For information on the Full Snow Moon in February 2025, click HERE.
Note:
"Full Snow Moon" is one of three poems chosen by George Elliott Clarke, Poet Laureate of Canada, for inclusion in the National Poetry Registry, Library of Parliament. These poems, published in Canada in my second full-length collection, Glad and Sorry Seasons (Biblioasis, 2014), reflect the landscape and/or events in the Federal ridings of Lac-Saint-Louis, Niagara Falls, and Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry, respectively.
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