Young Writers Project is a creative, online community of teen writers and visual artists that started in Burlington in 2006. Each week, VTDigger publishes the writing and art of young Vermonters who post their work on youngwritersproject.org, a free, interactive website for youth, ages 13-19. To find out more, please go to youngwritersproject.org or contact Executive Director Susan Reid at sreid@youngwritersproject.org; (802) 324-9538.
Look up now and you may still find a few obstinate holdouts clinging onto spindly branches, but the temporal spell of fall is already at its tail-end; we may as well accept it. But that does not mean there is not great beauty and wonder to behold in the season of ice and snow. This week’s featured poet, Riley Bernatchy of Cambridge, nudges us to give winter a proper chance to shine.
A wintry reflection
By Riley Bernatchy, 15, of Cambridge
When the wind is an icy hug,
and the snow is a blanket, holding the ground snug —
when the trees no longer sway, rocking back and forth,
and a fire is ablaze next to a comforting hearth —
it feels as if everything stops.
Time itself is now frozen, stuck in winter’s trance.
Winter is a time of reflection, though at first glance,
it seems as if it’s nothing but a dreadful season.
When the snow falls, that’s when the fun begins,
as sheets of ice become a natural mirror, with reasons
that must be found in the heart of the cold as the world spins.
Although the land is wrapped in a bitter hug,
the mortals who roam live happily and snug.
