Winter
By Ashleigh Madsen
Figure 1. Close up Snowflakes
Abstract
Winter is a poem about a pregnant woman walking a difficult path alone during winter while holding onto the hope of new life. The poem uses the harshness of winter to reflect struggle, isolation, and endurance, while the coming of spring represents the promise of seeing her child. Through seasonal imagery and emotional contrast, the poem explores hardship, hope, and the quiet strength of motherhood.
The frigid dark falls quickly now,
It breathes me in tonight.
The wild bears are sleeping still
Their darkened dens within.
In this place neither black nor white
So many shades of gray.
my heart is searching for a home
A safe place for me to stay.
I stumble on the icy path,
Sit there for a while.
I don’t know how I will survive
or walk my hardest mile.
The life within my swollen womb
moves, stretches, showing me
that soon we will have fair weather,
your precious face I'll see.
The bear has become a mother
And so my child will I,
When the tender crocus blossoms
And bird calls fill the sky.