Blow old North wind,
Your icy breath is a knife,
Storms have twinned,
Roads bisected by slushy ruts.
Sturdy New England folk
Might be down in the mouth;
Monotonous gray skies invoke
A temptation to head South.
Forty days to the solstice.
The sun is headed this way,
Eventual defeat to cold paralysis.
So we will wait it out, come what may.
Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham
68 thoughts on “Old North Wind”
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I love the ‘Your icy breath is a knife!’ 🙂 Oh yes – it certainly feels like that sometimes! Are you still getting a lot of snow? Not so much as a sprinkle of white stuff where I am – yet! Some very icy cold knife ferocious wind and rain though, especially today. I’m glad I was at home, in the warm and dry place! 🙂
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Today, it was 32 below freezing, and the wind sliced away warmth like knives. My cheeks felt abraded. Potential snow day tomorrow again, but maybe not much snow will fall. We’ll see come morning. Are you affected by all the flooding I’ve been reading about? I hope you are high and dry, in a good way. 🙂 Brenda
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No flooding where I am – yet! But still getting wicked strong wind with rain – impossible to use an umbrella on days like that! But I expect it will change soon. Can’t believe in a few weeks it will be March. It will be summer again before we know it!! 😀
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Yeah, it’s almost March!!
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that old north wind looks so wicked! Wonderful verse. Yes, I’m feeling quite done with winter most of the time, but then when the snow looks so pretty my heart softens again.
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I am starting to long for spring. It’s only 5 degrees here today, and yet winter does have magical moments.
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Brenda, I have always enjoyed the 1st snow, the 1st bite of winter cold. But now I live in Florida, and while I still enjoy the 1st bite of winter, which comes in Feb LOL. I thank you for all the lovely snowy pictures they portray a such a quiet peaceful place. Take care, Bill
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Walking this time of year is quiet and peaceful, hardly anyone else is out and about. LOL
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A delightful contemporary poem. You opening line also reminded of one from my childhood:
The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn and keep himself warm
and hide his head under his wing, poor thing.
I suspect that New England folk have perseverance.
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We persevere, and we complain. LOL That is a great poem about the robin. 🙂
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Only 40 day! I think that is doable! 🙂
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Frozen lip…40 days or is that daze!
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Maybe haze. 🙂
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Barely! LOL
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That wait is sometimes excruciating. But it is always worth the beauty of the resplendent days of spring. And to add to that, the spring has made an appearance here and the sunshine is quite glorious.
Well-penned. 🙂
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Thanks! I’m so jealous, still mid-winter here. 🙂
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Ah, I see you know how to stand your ground in the face of travail. Will the snowman be one-eyed?
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Most likely! LOL
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Excellent!– and I can certainly identify! : )
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Thanks!
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Forty days to solstice! Not that we’re counting!
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LOL, I’m counting!
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Wait, do we mean equinox? Or is this a poem from May?
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Perhaps I meant equinox after all. Ah well, a little artistic license goes a long way. 🙂 Brenda
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Indeed. Equinox sounds mathematical, and solstice magical. Besides I really want spring to be soon.
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I’m focusing on crocuses, willing them to grow!
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Blow your snow over to The Holler please…..it is dying of draught. Beautifully written of course~
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I’ll whisper in the ear of the North Wind, but whether or not he listens… 🙂 And thanks! I hope you get some rain for you and all your Holler friends.
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40 days more, looks like it would to stay longer.
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Even old man winter needs a rest, I’m thinking. 🙂
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beautiful pics and words, and thank you so much for the 40 days ’til solstice reminder. i’m going to make it after all!
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You’ll make it! And with style! Just don’t fall under any more cars!!
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i will do my best not to do any more of those under-car slides, but there is certainly no guarantee , brenda )
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I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, though.
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Love, “roads bisected by slushy ruts”. I can just see them now, in my head and right outside my door. Excellent, Brenda!
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Thanks, more storms coming! I refuse to be down about it. I’m planning a new snowman. 🙂 Cheers, Brenda
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Perfect, Brenda….Here is some ☀️ to warm you
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Thanks!
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Good timing- it is snowing outside right now. Soon we will look for crocuses. Just seems interminable right now. I like your header very much. Ruth in Pittsburgh
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Thanks, Ruth!! I long for crocuses, but I wouldn’t even see them under all that snow. Only a few came up at all last year and I used to have 50. I should plant more again this year. Maybe a couple hundred. Surely the squirrels can’t eat a couple hundred!!
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Sun couldn’t come soon enough, the winter needs to leave 😦
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LOL Don’t let old man winter get you down. Throw a snowball or two. That should cheer you up. 🙂
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ohhh no I’m batting it right back at him 😛
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Good, give him what for. 😉
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Just throwing snowballs back at him muahahaha lol
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LOL
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Great write Brenda!!
Not too long to go now!… (Wish I had some of that snow – it is ridiculously swelterish here!)
ML
x
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We are supposed to get more tonight. Sigh of endurance.
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awwww 😦
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Feel free to take any you like. LOL
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*ponders* If only!
I feel like a roast chicke… Human over here!
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Nobody here but us chicke… er, humans. 🙂 I hope you have some good AC.
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we do – at a cost of about $3300 every 3 months *groans*
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Wow! That is expensive!!
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I know.. 😦 We have a large house and 6 air conditioners – all split systems, though they run fairly continuously when everyone is here in the house – for at least 6 months of the year.
Prices were also recently raised by 40% which does not help!
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Wow!! That must be a big house. Well, I hope you drink beverages with lime. I’m told that helps with heat, and I’m planning to try it out this summer. 🙂
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I can’t say that I have or do… Maybe something to try? I DO drink alot of water 🙂
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In Central and South America — very hot climate — they are firm believers that drinks with lime are the way to help the body cope with heat. I don’t know if it’s true. It’s on my list of things to try. 🙂
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and I have just added it to mine 🙂
ML
x
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Come what may is familiar
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Perhaps you’re right. 🙂
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Slash of guns and roses said this to me as an inner Character. He came to look upon me when I was haunted and in shock and despair. I was eating a weatherspoons breakfast and he was dressed as a grandmother. It was awkward, surreal and frightening
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Wow. No other word appears to follow…
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I do not know that one.
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It is a term I came across when writing poetry in a similar way. Not dissimilar to skinny puppy lyrics. Like turning sentences round and inside out and conjoining them with the next phrase that behaves in a similar fashion. I would assume that slash must have done something similar for a band or in writing.
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Writing brings together us and thus delighting dreams unite
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In dreaming, we find delights. 🙂 One of my favorite pastimes, dreaming.
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Yes I know what you mean.
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