The Still Silence

This is beauty and tranquility
writ large on nature's landscape.
Our boots barely whispering
in the newfallen snow, as
dense curtains of flakes
steadily descend, a breeze
gently guiding snowflakes
to kiss our cheeks. All ambient
sound is absorbed in the still
silence but for the faint yet
unmistakable staccato of a
piercing beak on a hollow
trunk, creatures of the woods
themselves absorbed in random 
acts of simple survival.