Embrace the Beauty

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Ask for bluest sky–
still, the wind will sigh,
fly cold cloud-cover to hover—and yet

the tree will see, embrace
glow-diffused light. A shadow traced
on snow-kissed ground–grace, erased,

hope lost, then found. Seasons entwined,
winter’s signature signed in white-on-green–
beauty seen.

A quadrille for my prompt at dVerse. The prompt word is “embrace.” A quadrille is a dVerse poetry form, a poem in any style of 44-words. If you’d like, come join us. My photos are doing double-duty.

111 thoughts on “Embrace the Beauty”

  2. This is breathtakingly beautiful, Merril! 💝 I love; “glow-diffused light,” and “winter’s signature signed in white-on-green.” You make me long to go and enjoy some snow up in the north.

  3. Beautiful poem and stunning images, Merril! I especially love the phrase‘fly cold cloud-cover to hover’ and the internal rhyme of ‘Seasons entwined, winter’s signature signed’.

  7. I love the rhyming couplets (and triplets) here combined with some lovely alliteration and assonance: ‘fly cold cloud-cover to hover.’ A delightful linguistic embrace!

  10. I love, love, love the rhythm and rhyme here. Did I say I LOVED it? If not, I just love it. 😁

    It stirs along melancholy but then as the light shines, one can find a hope stare back. Perhaps it was lost in a moment of time, but it can reflect back again and we can embrace it like the seasons in times of its highs and lows. That’s what I got from this poem. Such a beautiful, stirring piece. I love its realism, along with the figurative imagery of the nature and winter. It’s remarkable:

    “the tree will see, embrace
    glow-diffused light. A shadow traced
    on snow-kissed ground–grace, erased…”

    You are a true wordsmith, Merril! The imagery itself diffused here is like a painting you can’t look away from. It’s that captivating. ❤ ❤

    • What a lovely, lovely, thoughtful, comment, Lucy. I so appreciate your close reading and interpretation. I think you got was in the back of my brain! I’m so pleased that you LOVED it! 💙

  13. We’re privileged to embrace the beauty of nature daily should we choose. At the moment I’m embracing the serenity of a new snowfall. There is something so calming about drifting snowflakes!

    • Thank you so much, Helen. I love that image of the film strip. 😀
      That’s so funny. Last year we didn’t have any snow, and it was very mild. Before long, you’ll be seeing flowers on my blog–I hope!

  22. The line that resonates most for me in your lovely poem is “Ask for bluest sky–” As soon as I read the line, I saw that bluest sky I love so much, even though it is now pitch black outside my window.

  31. Lovely poem and beautiful photos. I know you like writing formal poetry. Have you written villanelles? I have the idea of searching for the repeated lines in poems I never finished.

    • Thank you very much, Luanne. I’m not sure that I do like writing formal poetry, but sometimes I do it as a challenge. 😀I’ve only written a few villanelles. They’re really hard, and I’m not very good at sonnets.
      Do you mean write a poem made up of lines from other poems you’ve never finished? Like a cento drawn from your own work?

      • I meant to look for good lines for the two repeating villanelle lines. Of course I did not find anything. I did learn the secret of writing a villanelle though. First you create those two lines to be together at the end and then you write the rest of the poem. I don’t like writing formal poetry very much, but I do love sonnets and have written a lot of “ approximately sonnets.”

      • I think that’s what I ended up doing the last time I tried a villanelle. The sonnet I wrote this morning came out better than I thought it would. Maybe the secret is to write it first thing in the morning–like really first thing. 😀

  36. We’re embracing some deep cold right now, so the thought of days of light is welcome.

    btw… Thank you for the prompt, Merril. I seem to be stalled lately when it comes to writing, so I’ve been relying on prompts when possible, and yours never fail.

  38. Winter is over here, and it’s a start of spring. Unfortunately we didn’t see much snow this time.
    But this post reminds me of my old days when I used to spend my winter holidays at my Grandma’s house.
    I love it.

  39. Ah the tree is glorious in all weather….it glistens in the winter snow or in winter’s ice. It flirts with sun through its leaves. It weeps in rain. I love this poem and the description here.
    I must say….I watched television from Tuesday noon until Saturday afternoon – every single minute of the impeachment trial. I’m an old debater: high school and university…so the process enthralled me. Hence late reading and not entries on Tuesday or Thursday. But I did see history made. Just wish the verdict had been different. But all is now etched in history.

    • Thanks for reading and commenting, Lillian. I never got to do prompts on Tuesday or Thursday either. It was hard to get stuff in–I listened mostly rather than watched. Though there was only so much I could take of Trump’s defense team. UGHHH!

  42. Pingback: 74 – Beauty – Beach Walk Reflections: Thoughts from thinking while walking

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