Delmarva Review: Something More Than Winter Weighs (Upon Me) by John Muro

Author’s Note: A constant source of inspiration for my poems remains, unabashedly, the natural world. Nature so often provides for poetic inspiration, insight and restoration of the soul and the creative spirit. Sometimes, too, it provides a sacred space to simply reflect upon memories and key events in our life that still affect us in some way. The poem was written after a walk in winter at a time when I was thinking about the many people, including friends and family, who were once such integral parts of my life experience. The bleakness of that day seemed to reinforce a sense of isolation, the temporal nature of life and, strangely enough, it also seemed to increase the weight of anguish — and regret — inside me. Hence, the title of the poem.

Something More Than Winter Weighs (Upon Me)

Slowed by missteps and an unshakable
grief, I’m approaching the trail’s end,
watching the waning light dust the top
of the tree line where a few solitary
leaves of Klimt gold flutter like torch-
lights set atop the crowns of beech,
while a flock of juncos, shaped like
lateral buds, seem to blur and bend
the low-hanging branches, noting
how even the wind’s weighted, too,
with woodsmoke and rank with
leaf decay. In the further field,
snow, as soft as fly ash, is swept
across the thin, translucent icing
of the pond, adhering to the edges
of tombstones leaning away from
wind and much too close to earth,
and I pause to consider how all
seems to be near or at an ending
and so take on the season’s muted
hues of heart-sore gray, and I see
what little light is left to this day,
knowing, too, that I’ve done few
things well in this life and that it
is not so easy to displace loss, or
cast aside regrets or to somehow
ease the even greater weight of
those I still carry deep inside me. 

♦ 

John Muro’s work has been nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and two times for the Best of the Net Award. He is also a 2023 Grantchester Award recipient. John has published two volumes of poems, In the Lilac Hour (2020) and Pastoral Suite (2022), and both are available on Amazon. A third book, A Bountiful Silence, is slated for publication in the near-term. John’s work has appeared in Acumen, Barnstorm, Connecticut River, Grey Sparrow, New Square, River Heron, Sky Island and the Valparaiso Poetry Review. He lives in Connecticut and remains a lover of  the arts and of all things chocolate.    

The Delmarva Review, published in St. Michaels, MD, selects the most compelling new nonfiction, fiction, and poetry from thousands of submissions nationwide (and beyond) for publication in print, with an electronic edition. It is produced  at a time when many commercial  publications (and literary magazines) have closed their doors or are reducing literary content in print. Selection is based on writing quality, and almost half of the writers have come from the Chesapeake region.  As an independent literary publication, it has never charged writers a reading or publishing fee. The review is available worldwide from Amazon, other major online booksellers, and specialty regional bookstores. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council. Website: www.DelmarvaReview.org