Look for Spring in Life

In the morning, Amanda and I walked down the ranch

and fed her black rabbit, Nildro-hain.

White frost thick on the trees

thick on the catkins on the willows along the creek

White frost thick on new leaf buds

Thick white frost covers every stone of the granite ridge

rising untamed from wild white forest.

Beauty all around us of dense white frost.

If I never saw this beauty without this depth of cold,

then drive frost to the bone.

Centered in winter

I see the barest beginning of life

beneath this crystalline frost

leaf bud, catkin, newest green needles

stone crumbling to soil to cradle the seed.

Sun breaks through grey clouds above us

and turns the landscape golden.

A red-tailed hawk, gold in gold sunshine

soars above us,

above white frost, golden frost of the meadow.

We stop, without words.

Was the moment of creation like this,

cold,

cradling the beginning of life,

still with expectation,

then

warm, golden bright and beautiful,

with life blossoming everywhere?