December 11th and A Winter Poem

In one of my Christmas books is a poem by Ogden Nash called A Word About Winter

To save me typing the whole thing out I looked on line so I could just copy it over, except after looking all over the place on poetry sites and Ogden Nash sites it was nowhere around.

Perhaps it isn't as well known, anyway I forced to copy from the book, he was a great one for  making things rhyme......... somehow!

A Word About Winter

Now the frost is on the pane,

Rugs upon the floor again,

Now the screens are in the cellar,

Now the student cons the speller,

Lengthy summer noon has gone,

Twilight treads the heels of dawn,

Round-eyed sun is now a squinter,

Tiptoe breeze a panting sprinter,

Every cloud a blizzard hinter,

Squirrel on the snow a sprinter,

Rain spout sprouteth icy splinter,

Willy-nilly, this is winter. 

Summer-swollem doorjambs settle,
Ponds and puddles turn to metal,
Skater whoops in frisky fettle,
Golf-club stingeth like a nettle,
Hearth is Popocatepetl.

Runneth nose and chappeth lip,
Draft evadeth weather strip
Doctor wrestleth with grippe
In never ending rivalship.
Rosebush droops in garden shoddy,
Blood is cold and thin in body,
Weary postman dreams of toddy,
Head before the hearth grows noddy.

On the hearth the embers gleam,
Glowing like a maiden's dream,
Now the apple and the oak
Paint the sky with chimney smoke,
Husband now without disgrace,
Dumps ash trays in the fireplace.

                        A cold winter sunrise many years ago on the road in front of  the smallholding

Back Tomorrow
Sue