Winter brings storms of discontent,
white whirls of biting winds.
Home has no satisfaction when
the planet's rotation is out of control
and the sun's coldness is an insult.
I rebel at my powerlessness
and resist the season impatiently;
spring ignores my demand.
Thus I make my own unhappiness.
MargaretG February 2009
Author notes
We can resist the irresistible or go with the flow. Spring comes after winter, it is reliable.
A contest entry
- Huguenauties Contest No.#41 for MEMBERS OF HUGH WYLES FAVOURITES GROUP ONLY by huguenauties.
750 points, ended February 24, 2009, 16 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Thank you for reading, please comment.
Comments
1 - 42 of 42
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Very nice ...
and very nicely done. It scarcely matters if you won a contest or not. The poem is the thing that matters.
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True Margaret, we just have to go with the flow and live with the weather changes. Lovely poem.
Good luck in the voting.
Hine
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I'm freezing now ...
such a lively inner journey, it took me all along, into the cold chambers of my youth captured in ice (both literally and physically) ... it probably wasn't winter ALL the time, but it felt like it, even in the summer ...
an amazing verse, my sister ...
maa
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In Canada, the frigid winter is balanced by a sweltering summer (except in the Maritimes). There is nothing so beautiful as sunshine at -20C.
Europe is a challenge for my soul...
Thanks for following the emotion of this piece.
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Oh give me a decent Spring, it's been so long since I saw one, but, we have to learn to accept it otherwise we'd really make ourselves miserable and I'd prefer happiness.
Good luck in the voting.
Jen
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I love spring and from March onwards I'm out there looking for green shoots. Thank you Jen!
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It's good that we know we make our own unhappyness...This is short but I do like it...Good luck...
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A little self-awareness shows that it's not the events but our own responses that make us unhappy. The weather is what it is, my thoughts make the clouds gloomy.
Thanks for your comment, Darlene!
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excellent~
I like the line
I rebel at my powerlessness
I do that as well
I finally got my poem in almost didn't think I would make it been in the hospital and been so sick....
Best of luck in the contest
Hugs
Susan~~~~
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A guru once said that bearing pain is the hardest spiritual challenge, and that was why he did it. The idea of what "should" be is very rough on oneself and others. Your poem is beautiful Susan, and I look forward to new life that will come with the longer days.
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I thank God for reliable spring!
Best of Luck in this contest!
Hugs,
<3 Maureen
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Thanks Maureen! My family has been bothered with one cold after another, and the incessant clouds are not helping us feel better! Sometimes we feel rotten, that's the truth. Only a few more weeks to go until the weather warms up.
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I've had a persistent cold, too! It's been so bad, I can't hear out of my right ear!!! Talk about misery!!!
My misery doesn't love company, though. When I'm feeling bad, I just vant to be alone!!!
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I hope your ears clear up! It is miserable and being with other people is no fun at all. My elder son has it the worst, a hacking cough that won't quit. This is his last year of high school, and the teachers expect a lot from him; these days he just doesn't have a lot!
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'Thus I make my own unhappiness.'
Not happiness?
You mean you make unhappiness by being impatient?
Speaking as a metaphor, I would hate to have the world out of rotation, actually it almost always is and I almost always am not pleased about it, lol
Metaphor or literal, I'm ready for Spring!
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It's all attitude, isn't it? My grandmother responded to my impatience once with, "Don't wish your life away." This was 'way before the current buzz of "now"; she had an understated wisdom which was not much appreciated at the time.
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Wonderfully writ!
The changing seasons are constant, people on the other hand have too many conflicting detours to hurdle. Here's wishing you safe passage to springs warming rays and happiness renewed
Let the ink flow!
love and blessings, Sandi
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Thank you Sweetheart! When I feel well, winter is not troublesome. I get impatient when now is uncomfortable.
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Ah, Margaret, you plead your case so well, bewailing the discontent of the cold.
May you soon make your happiness
as bright and promising as Spring
as you visualize it every day!!!
M-C
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Thank you M-C! It was fun to get indignant for a few moments.
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Hah! Sometimes that is our only defense!!!
Well done, Margaret!
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All I think about is, soon will be warm. It's the only comfort I get to endure these cold days.
The title of your poem is very good, fits perfectly to the poem.
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Thanks for the great prompt in the contest, I had fun getting into the emotion. Realistically, spring will be here soon enough no matter how I feel in the meantime...
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Dear Sweetpea, I wish the seasons were more predictable here in OZ land, Autumn and spring seems to have gone missing these past few years.
Autumn is supposed to start in March here but we have heat until the end of April, the poor leaves on the trees they don't know what to do, the trees are still shedding their leaves now in Summer! And forget about spring, I haven't seen a tree in blossom for yonks! Winter is what I like, what we have of it that is, I can still walk around in summer clothes with just a sweater or jacket on.But we do have some very cold days at times, then I sit in front of the heater that I have to share with my two cats.
Your poem is lovely my friend, don't be unhappy my dear friend, we just have to accept the weather everywhere is changing.
Love Joan
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Dear Joan, thank you for your great comment. I am not unhappy, I just indulged in some negative thoughts for a few minutes and got them out of my system. The weather here is freezing and foggy, I miss my Canadian winter sunshine. By April we should be enjoying mild weather.
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This is a fine tuned poem
Now go with the flow until
flowers bloom in spring once more.
artie
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Thank you very much artie, it's a pleasure to meet you.
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I always appreciate your outlook on any situation, Margaret and this poem is a great example. The seasons are going to come and go, the weather is going to do its thing no matter what we mere mortals think or want. So we may as well make the best of it and gleen the pleasure that often hides with it.
As adults we see the snow as a deterent to our daily routine.. as a kid we saw it as snowmen, sledding, snow angels, snowball fights behind baricades of snow. And in the good old days of cleaner air, we made snow icecream (yummy)Maybe we should get out and do those things again... surprise the heck out of our kids
A wonderful poem, and I wish you good luck in the contest
Dee
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Thank you Dee - the serenity prayer "accept the things I cannot change" is the byword here, my poem just demonstrated how we work against our own peace and happiness. When we stop getting in our own way, they call it "wisdom".
After the fall I took last year trying to play street hockey, I don't do such active things and I notice how creaky I am. I should get back into yoga.
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Wintry introspection...
"I rebel at my powerlessness
and resist the season impatiently;
spring ignores my demand.
Thus I make my own unhappiness."
Your imagery speaks so true of the inner landscape that can be winter any time of year as well as when the cold and snow prevail "out there". Though spoken as complaint, i sense in your deep words that your already know that what we resist persists, much like the never boiling watched pot. When we know we make our own UNhappiness we know the author of our happiness.
Shine your wondrous Light from within and keep warming our lives with the Love that is You.
Rahad
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Consciousness is the beginning, then we can do something different. I love your comments Rahad, you have a unique and enlightening view.
The wind was blowing so briskly today it made my face hurt, and through this I will be happier when the sun shines warmly again.
Many blessings.
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lovely imagry you have put to this. I've never been in snow or a snow storm.
best of luck
mia
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Thank you Mia! I like to play in snow, and if I can view moving snow out of the way as play, all is well. Living in this apartment, others do that for us, so we just have to beware of ice. The cold only lasts a couple of months, but you are well not to have it there.
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Spring, the Sweet Spring
I woke this morn to swirling snow,
But now the skies are blue!
Although the ground is white below
The clouds are silver, too.
But still I long for Spring to break,
The flowers to twinkle through
I'm freezing cold, for goodness sake!
(Here's all the best to you.)
Keep smiling! K.
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Today again the sky was gray
and ice blew on the gusts,
the snowfall of the other day
had frozen into crusts;
you write of flowers come the Spring,
a most idyllic trend -
the best you hope that time will bring,
I wish to you, my friend.
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Thanks. Much appreciated.
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Ah, but dream of Cairo!
Did you not just write
about that a short time
ago?
Such good word choices,
what many of us are
thinking!!!
M-C
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Thank you M-C! I tried to put myself into one who hates winter, and found this deep discontent. I keep the weather report for Cairo on my desktop, it is consistently 20 degrees warmer than here. I don't have any choice but to wait for it, so I may as well try to enjoy the time.
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Clever Title's Inspiration
Universal content, multiple repetitions
with every shovelful of snow he heaves
almost to the top of the repercussions
of having let it snow, when he believes
the warm sun will melt it all away. Hate
the consequences of hasty ruminations:
The melt indeed had come, but too late
for delay had frozen all compensations!
After the time, his lesson too, I guess
He had surely made his own unhappiness!
Sigh.
At least six more weeks of this, and then,
The FLOODS!
Terry
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Oh dear, Terry
The one who puts off snow shovelling for better weather is invariably in for even more work! There is nothing to do but try to keep up. and more hugs for the snow crew.
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Dear Margaret,
You can't resist the planet's twist
around the tepid sun,
though some who tried have failed and died
forgotten, every one.
Attempting the impossible
is just a waste of life
as any male who tries will fail
to satisfy his wife.
One cannot build a solid wall
when using broken bricks
'tis better not to try at all
to kick against the pricks.
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I can
and not to try to change the sky
for I am only man.
Don't be unhappy, dear. Try to accept things as they are and enjoy. Things are often not as bad as they seem.
Applause, love and hugs and best of luck in the voting. XXX Hugh (R.)
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So true, Hugh
The planet turns without consulting me, and there is no use at all in fretting about the coming of the next season, it will.
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