Here in the Okanagan we had nothing like the storms that have hit Newfoundland, or the American Midwest. But temperatures down to -20C, and snow that has fallen every day for more than a week, propelled my creative juices a little. 

            This is what musicians call “variations on the theme by…” Chopin or Mozart or…. In this case, the familiar Christmas carol by Christina Rossetti. 

Midwinter

Variations on a theme by Christina Rossetti, 1872

In the bleak midwinter

grey snow shrouds the ground

bare branches claw the sky while

overcast clouds crush spirits

Frosty wind made moan

arctic vortex strikes 

a coiled serpent sinks 

icy fangs into bare flesh

Earth was hard as iron

soil rings like rock underfoot

voles and field-mice dig deeper

their secret subways

Water like a stone

rock-hard crystal floats

nine-tenths below surface

invisible as thought

Snow was falling, snow on snow

vapour petals, winter blossoms, 

fluffy feathers sifting down 

from a frozen breast

In the bleak midwinter

vampire cold sucks life 

warm bodies seek dormancy

not a time for miracles

Long long ago 

but not forever

miracles do happen

spring sleeps below.

by Jim Taylor, January 2020