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Aubade with Snow: poem by Olga Dugan


Photo: a plant called Snowball Viburnum, whose blossoms actually do look like snowballs with their clusters of white florets, in this photo they are surrounded by green and red leaves, making for a festive display, image by Pat, on Pixabay.
























Snowball Viburnum, image by Pat, on Pixabay



Aubade with Snow


(for Peter Mangiola and Kathie Collins)

 

morning after storm, downy crystals quietly pack all

the world under thirty inches of peaceful polar quilt

 

unlike the night before when winter bullied its way

with a blizzard’s howl, whistle, crunch into spring

 

outside our glass screen door, high winds blew heavy

flurries lowering visibility—my aunt, delighted

 

by the need to stay, wrapped me in a blanket against

the cold that led some to hypothermia, those caught

 

too long in snow so deep the city had to dump it off

bridges, I watched without moment of sudden insight

 

revelation even after someone turned off the tv news

leaving the room still a hoary glow until I closed

 

the exterior door, heading for bed, for an echt

transformation in my life at dawn

                                                when a flower taught

that a thing sparking joy, but once

did not, impacts change deeper than any epiphany

 

a gentle stir and I woke to my aunt’s pleasant plea

want to see resilience? strength? what it means to stay

 

your faith and be unmoved? come, come see, she kindly

hurried me into warm robe, slippers and downstairs

 

to view from a back window the Snowball Viburnum

the “wandering tree“ north center of our yard, its snow-

 

laden branches holding out to me their milky globes

hydrangea-like and huge—to survive a storm whole

 

like your treepersevere, my aunt said, don't lose heart

she cupped my hands placing there a pompon of lace-

 

white florets, her hands felt warm as they steadied mine

remember, long as it’s spring, birds will need your fruit 











Olga Dugan is a Fellow of the Cave Canem Foundation. Nominated for Best of the Net

and Pushcart prizes, her award-winning poems appear in journals and anthologies including Ekstasis, Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith, The Write Launch, Ariel Chart,

The Sunlight Press, ONE ART, Agape Review, The Windhover, evolution: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku, and the Munster Literature Centre's Poems from Pandemia—An Anthology. Holding a Ph.D.

in Literary History and Culture from the University of Rochester, Olga has written articles on poetry and cultural memory that appear in The Journal of African American History, The North Star, and Emory University's “Following the Fellows.” At Community College of Philadelphia, Olga is a Lindback Professor of English (Emeritus). She writes,

“I am fascinated by what makes a believer’s voice distinct in a polyphonic world. So, I write poems that explore characteristics, moments of change or definition, narratives which help to shape a unique, authentic, and Christ-centered self.” 





November 2024 issue                                                                            

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cmbharris
cmbharris
17 de nov.

Such a beautiful poem!

Curtir
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