This Winter 2009. A winter spoiler...delete,billy, if it offends

[tectak]

This winter sent the piercing spikes; glass-brittle, hard as flint.
Not yielding to the sword of light, they daily grow
by inch on inch and glint on glint,
from water freed from fused, fine jewels once held as snow.
These transient gems in nature’s crown
no feeble sun can render down,
this winter morn.

This winter chills the mid-day breeze until air scintillates;
and from the high and bedecked boughs, encrusted white,
falls shards as ice disintegrates.
A glimpse, a flash, of low-noon sun through grey cloud, edged with light
though fleeting and yet promising
no comfort nor warm rapture brings,
this winter noon.

This winter strides bare fallow fields, in dark and cold they lay.
A breath, a sigh of falling air, moves not one blade,
nor leaf, nor twig, this dying day .
Grey cloaked, the ruby, skirmished sky is set to fade,
as blood will blacken, in to night.
Strong men will hunch against the bite,
this winter eve.

This winter closed out stars above with dense but unseen cloud;
whilst down below the clamping cold held tight the land.
Then stirrred the breeze, but with no sound,
new fell the snow to layer deep, to cover and
make pure the ground in wait of spring,
that only hope alone can bring,
this winter night.

Tom Kirby Jan 2009