Carillon Magazine

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Winter

Gill Gofannon (France)

The bitter north-east wind pursues its path,

Howling viciously among bleak woodlands.

Stripping bare lingering leaves with its wrath;

Leaving skeletons, robbed by icy hands.

Chimneys roar, windows rattle, lampposts sway.

Seas, lakes and oceans swell and ships and boats

And liners are buffeted on their way.

People are made to stagger slowly, clutching coats

Against the worst of winter’s blackest shades.

Then snow arrives, enveloping the world.

The silence that it brings, the peace; pervades

Inwards to home, to hearth; while fields are pearled.

The world looks dead. But no, it sleeps

‘Til the spring, when new life into being leaps.

Issue 17