Hidden Treasures

The crystalline beauty of ice refracting
a winter sun, and the overwhelmingly
breathtaking landscape of pristine white
in the wake of a winter snowstorm have
their place in the canon of evanescent
exquisite beauty nature is so inordinately
skilled at presenting, yet these are
phenomena of atmospheric conditions
that take their toll on all that lives
whose onslaught butterflies and birds
flee while those that cannot migrate take
measures to safeguard their existence in
the animal kingdom. The absence of plant
life enlivening the landscape when the
verdant pleasure of lush foliage and grasses
depart and floral offerings wither and die
leave a vacuum we barely take note of
until their prolonged absence strikes that
subconscious blow of deprivation. This
too shall pass when the season grows long
and its cranky presence decried until the
agonizingly delayed presence of spring
when the discovery of renewal reminds
us of near-forgotten rituals and the burst
of disbelief and joy when garden soil
relents and releases its captives finally
thawed and anxious to thrive as they
have done since time immemorial.