The Occasion

In the dead of winter. The occasion
was a spontaneous gift that life
sometimes offers, a radiant day of
unblemished beauty and invitation
to revel in the glory of a winter sun
beaming through a cloudless sky onto
the landscape of an urban forest
calling to those fortunates living nearby
to clad themselves and their winter
weary companions and hail nature
from within her treed salon signalling
gratefulness for a day without raging
winds, frostily weeping skies and
breath-taking cold. And so they
came with their toques and their
mittens, their exuberant dogs and
their pleased expressions on sighting
friends and neighbours all somehow
signalled to leave their climate
protected homes and forge toward
the forest to revel in its invitation to
stroll along the icy trails, slipping now
and again, quipping and laughing in
unison at the beatific glory of winter.