Ahh January,
My old friend,
Once again, your cold embrace touches me,
Exhilarating, it is almost melodious to the touch,
A calming essence, I relish it,
But to see over the horizon,
To yonder south,
Is to see difference,
A warming sun and burnished fruit-laden trees,
This fabled galactic symphony of opposites,
The ying to the yang,
To see the snowdrops struggling out the ground,
The soil is a strong skin,
But to break through into glorious sunshine,
To me, social Darwinism,
To be nestled in December’s festivities,
Indoors in the incubation of the fire,
But it’s back to work,
Peering deep into a time capsule,
In the igneous garnet,
To times wondrous oscillating constancy,
A pendulum restarted,
A time for change.
Author notes
Category one in the contest criterea - though I've not written about a specific time in my life, but more a global thing.
N.B. the snowdrop is the flower of January, and used as a metaphore for how I feel in January. December is spent in the cosy warmth, a complacency and oblvious to what is going outside, it's a beautiful feeling stuck in that fantasy world. But to burst forward in January into the outside is glorious, to feel the chill in your face and to face the world once more. It has it's repercussion, but I think it is worth it.
Garnet is the birthstone for January, I am a geology student, so being back at University and studying the crystal, finding out what it tells us about the world, it has seen the dinosaurs, and the age of mammals...then the age of humans, how we have started to ruin our world with materialistic greed. If we can do something to rectify, what a better time to do it than now? In January, the time of change.
A contest entry
- January New Member Contest by AP Greeters.
600 points, ended February 8, 42 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What do you think?
Comments
1 - 15 of 15
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Welcome to AllPoetry
nice imagery and vocabulary choice. An interesting piece. Thanks for entering the contest and good luck.
~Diana
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Welcome to Allpoetry and thank you for entering the contest
Your vocabulary is excellent and I appreciated the additional explanation.
I loved your words here and the imagery that was created from them.
Welcome to Allpoetry and thank you for entering our contest
I hope that you enjoy the site, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask
Good luck!
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welcome to allpoetry
thanks for sharing this deep look into the culture of today and trying to look past it . well done on this, good luck in the contest.
cheers
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Welcome to AllPoetry
Stunning poem ~
I love your vocabulary, metahpors and the explanations in the Authors Notes; you created a beautiful poem for readers to enjoy and wish to read again and again
♥
Thank You for Your Entry & Best of Luck
Enjoy AllPoetry
Stay safe
~Manda
Site Greeter -
Welcome to Allpoetry
First of all, I really enjoyed your explanations in the ANs; they gave the whole poem so much more depth, and I felt that I understood it better when I reread it
This line stuck out:
"To times wondrous oscillating constancy..."
You have an amazing vocabulary, and that never fails to impress me. Most kids your age seem to underestimate the power of a strong vocab, the impact it can have on your reader; but not you
Well done, and keep up the good work!
Laura
Site Greeter
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Thank you very much for the lovely comments, there are so many wonderful words out there, and so few of them are used. I like to, if appropriate, explore words and actually try and fit odd ones.
Thank you again.
Sam
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Welcome to All Poetry
A creative write full of great imagery. One suggestion would be to get rid of every coma after each line break. I found that it made the poem seem to drag on. Perhaps if you add different punctuation it will help the flow. Thank you for sharing this with us, best of luck in the contest. 
Sarah
Site Greeter -
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Thank you very much for the comments. It is a very old habit which several AP members have commented on. The fact it is a habit means it would suddenly seem very strange not to have commas after each line (or punctuation of some description)...I don't know if it is some sort of personal OCD but the line looks incomplete, and it looks weird in my head. Seriously I have no idea why I do it...I guess it's a habit I ought to get out of!
Thank you again for the comments.
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I enjoyed your poem very much. I am also a geologist by training. One of the few nice rock speciments that I have managed to hold onto over the years is a chunk of wollastonite from New York state with perfect garnet crystals in it. I loved the reference to garnet.
Unfortunately, we have no flowers here in January unless they are grown inside. I have a 6 foot snow bank at the foot of my yard.
Great job.
Mike
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It's always fantastic to speak to another geologist! Most people are just under the impression that it is just rocks and more rocks, but I see it as so much more.
I've got some small crystals of garnet, but nothing hugely dramatic. Here snow is non-existant (I live in the South East of England), we're more likely to recieve it within the next couple of months. I've seen more snow in March than I have in January! However, due to the relatively warm climate flowers do bloom in January, woodland walks can be quite dramatic.
Thank you for the comments again,
Sam.
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Excellent
Great writing. Two small issues: I got stopped by the word "yonder". Archaic had its place but I don't think it belongs here. Also, why a comma at the end of each line? Sometimes a line break is all you need to give the appropriate stop. Good work. Buff
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Thank you for the comments. I don't know why I use commas, come to think of it, no one else does. It's habbit, absolutely every poem I've ever writen has them...plus I do it with letters and the like.
As for the word "yonder", don't know again! Just sort of came out! Might have been listening to medieval music at the time, it's quite a strong possibility!
Again thank you very much for the comments.
Sam
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Tender and Creative
Wow, I can really relate to this and I should think from the way that it is written, most readers can empathise with the feelings you describe.
I particularly like the illustration of the snow-drop 'struggling' from the ground, that 'hard skin' of the earth... It's so true, that the first flower after winter, such a small and delicate thing, should survive the earth's crusty, winter hardened ground and still grow. I thought the idea of the incubator was soooo incredible!! The way we sort of want to hibernate in the winter, and nourish ourselves until the spring shines on us again.
'oscillating constancy' onomatopoeic genius, alliterative for the ongoing cycles of time, which is a well-communicating running-through theme to the poem in its entirey, the idea of seasons changing,a nd the structure, of having the new year at the start turning the readers' thoughts to the message of the poem which is new beginnings, then to the freshness of Spring, and then the dying of the year in placing the winter at the end.
'Burnished Fruit-laden trees' also; so poetic!!
Loved the theming, and the footnotes really made it come to a suitable close for me; it was left on a high note, prompting the reader to do something, which is the most goodness-filled kind of poem, and productive for reading.
It's a pleasure, as always to read your writing.
Sarah xx
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It is like those days with a 9:00am lecture, with an hour long bus journey. Your alarm goes off, your room is chilly but your bed is so warm! How easy it would be to just lie in bed! But that initial burst of effort into the open is all worth it when you are reunited with your friends, you have a particularly interesting lecture, etc.
I'd never really thought about January before. It was a strange write, but deffinately worth it.
I remember my sister mentioning the stuff about garnet and snowdrops being representative of January (she likes that sort of stuff), and I just thought it was so appropriate.
Thank you for your comments, they really do mean a lot to me.
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I really like the imagery you have conjured here. Great choice of words. Thank you for the Author notes, its a nice explanation.
Welcome to AP~
KW~
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