40 days into winter, a poem
When our friend John Scarlett, a blacksmith and poet who lives in Rossie, sent this poem to a few friends this morning, I immediately asked if I could share it with others. Perfect as we approach the halfway point of winter…but who’s counting?
Losing Count
by John Scarlett
Each night I wake up
two or three times
to use the toilet
and throw three or four chunks
of firewood into the boxstove,
making sure to pour
four or more quarts of water
into the big pot on top of the stove
before returning to bed
and before stopping to read
the indoor and outdoor temperatures
on the weather station
and counting the number of hours
since bedtime and until coffee.
Breakfast requires measuring
exactly several cups of oatmeal and water
and taking the correct number of pills
from all of the bottles,
precisely the same number
(what a coincidence)
as the twelve cleats around which
I loop the laces
of each calf high leather boot
before walking one hundred and fifty yards
to the barn to let out two oxen,
throw them one bale of hay,
and remove two wheelbarrow loads
of manure
and before returning to the house
to fill three bird feeders
and pull two hand-sled loads
of firewood to the backdoor
after having stopped to observe
a dozen or so
little brown rabbit pellets
scattered by the wind
across the fresh snow.
Back inside I sit next to the stove
to unhook in reverse order
the frozen laces of the same boots,
put on my two new slippers,
and with the second cup of coffee
gripped by five fingers
of my right hand
I may, if I remember to,
stand facing the wall calendar
with all its numbered boxes
to make sure I am not
somewhere other than where
someone is counting
on me to be.
As my frozen beard
drips into my cup
I notice that in two days
it will be January thirty-first,
the day on which you are supposed
to have used up no more than half
your winter’s supply
of hay and wood
and that in three or four weeks
it will be time to hang
several hundred buckets
on the maple trees,
about as many as the sheets of paper
piling up beside
Jack Nicholson’s typewriter
in The Shining.
John Scarlett
January 29, 2014
wonderful poem.
Thanks for posting this – thanks to John for sharing!
I’m inspired, I ripped off a popular Cajun tune for this.
A Frozen Report
Single digi high single digi low
Maybe above maybe below
Weather man says he don’t know
But he says there’ll be more snow
(chorus)
Single digi high single digi low
Hope you don’t have someplace to go
There’s a lot of ice and snow
Single digi high single digi low
Better drive slippery
The roads are carefull
Mention black ice
You’ll get an earful
Spin out of control if you’re not mindfull
Single digi high single digi low
(chorus)
It won’t put you in a trance
You’ll jump up and down and dance
And wish you wore long underpants
Single digi high single digi low
(chorus)
As you shiver in the cold
And wonder what the day will hold
Just remember you were told
Single digi high single digi low
(chorus) and out