{"id":8541,"date":"2014-01-30T10:30:34","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T15:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=8541"},"modified":"2014-01-30T10:36:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T15:36:44","slug":"40-days-into-winter-a-poem-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/01\/30\/40-days-into-winter-a-poem-2\/","title":{"rendered":"40 days into winter, a poem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Jon Matthies<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

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?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Losing Count<\/em><\/p>\n

by John Scarlett<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Each night I wake up<\/p>\n

two or three times<\/p>\n

to use the toilet<\/p>\n

and throw three or four chunks<\/p>\n

of firewood into the boxstove,<\/p>\n

making sure to pour<\/p>\n

four or more quarts of water<\/p>\n

into the big pot on top of the stove<\/p>\n

before returning to bed<\/p>\n

and before stopping to read<\/p>\n

the indoor and outdoor temperatures<\/p>\n

on the weather station<\/p>\n

and counting the number of hours<\/p>\n

since bedtime and until coffee.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Breakfast requires measuring<\/p>\n

exactly several cups of oatmeal and water<\/p>\n

and taking the correct number of pills<\/p>\n

from all of the bottles,<\/p>\n

precisely the same number<\/p>\n

(what a coincidence)<\/p>\n

as the twelve cleats around which<\/p>\n

I loop the laces<\/p>\n

of each calf high leather boot<\/p>\n

before walking one hundred and fifty yards<\/p>\n

to the barn to let out two oxen,<\/p>\n

throw them one bale of hay,<\/p>\n

and remove two wheelbarrow loads<\/p>\n

of manure<\/p>\n

and before returning to the house<\/p>\n

to fill three bird feeders<\/p>\n

and pull two hand-sled loads<\/p>\n

of firewood to the backdoor<\/p>\n

after having stopped to observe<\/p>\n

a dozen or so<\/p>\n

little brown rabbit pellets<\/p>\n

scattered by the wind<\/p>\n

across the fresh snow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Back inside I sit next to the stove<\/p>\n

to unhook in reverse order<\/p>\n

the frozen laces of the same boots,<\/p>\n

put on my two new slippers,<\/p>\n

and with the second cup of coffee<\/p>\n

gripped by five fingers<\/p>\n

of my right hand<\/p>\n

I may, if I remember to,<\/p>\n

stand facing the wall calendar<\/p>\n

with all its numbered boxes<\/p>\n

to make sure I am not<\/p>\n

somewhere other than where<\/p>\n

someone is counting<\/p>\n

on me to be.<\/p>\n

As my frozen beard<\/p>\n

drips into my cup<\/p>\n

I notice that in two days<\/p>\n

it will be January thirty-first,<\/p>\n

the day on which you are supposed<\/p>\n

to have used up no more than half<\/p>\n

your winter\u2019s supply<\/p>\n

of hay and wood<\/p>\n

and that in three or four weeks<\/p>\n

it will be time to hang<\/p>\n

several hundred buckets<\/p>\n

on the maple trees,<\/p>\n

about as many as the sheets of paper<\/p>\n

piling up beside<\/p>\n

Jack Nicholson\u2019s typewriter<\/p>\n

in The Shining<\/i>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John Scarlett<\/p>\n

January 29, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When our friend John Scarlett, a blacksmith and poet who lives in Rossie, sent this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8541"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8543,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8541\/revisions\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}