Another Year
Believe it or not, it's here:
Cold and clamouring winter sunlight and
Dry knuckles that bleed.
Evenings that start at 4 in the afternoon and
Forests shocked white.
Great things take time and
Here it is.
I count the dusks;
Justify
Keeping the Christmas lights in my window up a
Little bit longer.
Months of night, pinpricked by
Neighbourhood decorations,
Open living room windows and industry bulb lamps,
Paper lanterns outside the sushi restaurant on the corner of main...
Quiet lives, living
Restlessly.
Slowly waiting for
The months to slip by and the
Undergrowth to return. For
Violets to spring and for
Winter to fade.
Xeranthemums on the horizon.
You start to soak up the twilight, moonlight, lamplight: the
Zest that is ice before it thaws.
About the Creator
sleepy drafts
a sleepy writer named em :)
Reader insights
Outstanding
Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!
Top insights
Excellent storytelling
Original narrative & well developed characters
Compelling and original writing
Creative use of language & vocab
Expert insights and opinions
Arguments were carefully researched and presented
Heartfelt and relatable
The story invoked strong personal emotions
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Comments (27)
Congrats on Top Story, not sure how I missed this!
Beautiful and conjured up the winter chill and thrill so well. Congratulations on your TS and thank you for sharing so delightful an image of winter and the prospect of a delightful thaw.
Oh, I love the way this flows, from winter to spring 🌱🌼. Creative use of the alphabet. Another year. Here it is. Congratulations on Top Story.
Great Top Story! “ Evenings that start at 4 in the afternoon and Forests shocked white.” Ice and snow etc are treats which I’ve only had a chance to enjoy a handful of times in my life! I’m currently enjoying a mild summer Down Under! Enjoying visits to the coast and ocean swims.
Awesome poem! I love the image of "cold and clamouring winter sunlight". Congrats on the Top Story!
Wondrous job! Keep up the exceptional effort—congrats!
Well now...it's good to see you Em and glad to see what you do best...writing some of the most beautiful poetry ever. Congrats on a thoroughly-well-deserved Top Story! Hope you're well and 2024 is off to a good start for you!
Heyyyy Em! I came back here to congratulate you on your Top Story and imagine my surprise to see that my comment is missing! Before I tell you what I commented, I wanna say congratulations! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊 So this was what I said in my comment. It was something along the lines of: Heyyy Em, I've missed you! So happy to see your poem! It was soooo beautifully penned and I'm in love with it! I have two questions though. First is, would this still be considered an Abecedarian if the letter A is in your title and your poem starts with B? I'm only asking because I don't want you to be disqualified. I hope you're not offended 🥺 Second, how did you manage to publish this without a subtitle? That's awesomeeee!
Wow, every single line of this is utterly perfect
Wonder sights and pictures so great. Each season has beauty in it's own right. Congrats TS.
Excellent effort! Keep up the superb work—congrats!s
Lovely Abecedarian poem!!! ❤️❤️💕Congratulations on Top Story!!!
Great abecedarian!! Congrats!
Well done on T.S., very much deserved!
Wow, this is so good, pulled right where you wanted us. Congratulations on the top story
Congratulations!! Lovely entry.
This was beautifully written Em! So nice to see you. :) I've missed you on here...
A perfect poem for what the the weather is like lately. The Christmas light give Christmas a warm feeling. I love the imagery in this poem. 🥰
This is written so beautifully and it flows so easily I didn’t even realize it’s an Abcderian poem 😯
Cool thoughts, literally. Wonderful work! Happy New Year to ya, Em. Nice to see you pop up in notifications.
This is beautiful, Em. Nice to see you back in the fold.
So good to have you back with these wonderful words
Beautifully done, very descriptive with a clear story line. Congratulations
This is so beautiful, and flowed so naturally that I didn’t notice it was an abecedarian until the end. Very clever to make the title the first line. I’m a Minnesotan who loves winter (I think you’re Canadian?). The more brutally cold and snowy, the better. I loved that this wasn’t exactly singing winter’s praises, but wasn’t entirely denouncing it either. The anticipation of that undergrowth returning is real, and anticipation makes life worth living. We’d all be in trouble with nothing to look forward to. ‘Quiet lives, living Restlessly’ was my favorite part. A perfect dichotomy in three words.
"Forests shocked white" is a lapidary line.