Winter By The Stones
By Dan Radel

It's winter here, brooding deeply over the stones
Wet cold clings heavy on bare trees
Life's absence hovers above wintering grass
Flowerbeds sleep, devoid of color
Air scented by rotting humus
Gravestones reflect gray sky
Birds seek warmth but only find cold
Souls waiting in slumber for rebirth
This season mimics death
A cruel hoax it plays
The wound on my soul only throbs lightly
Warmed by a life within
A light little dance performed inside
Around the seedling growing there
Let the chill wind slap at me
I scarcely feel the cold moist air
For within me, spring winds stir
Caressing a life deep inside
Drinking from that winter spring
Life formed anew from painful cold
The stones shout out, you will survive
Grow strong from our sustaining love
The storm has run its course
Seedling forces its way above
Emerging from deaths cold embrace
To grow in Gods sweet love

Dan Radel is currently finishing his BA in Creative Writing at Antioch University in Seattle. His interest in poetry was born out of the murder/suicide of his wife and daughter in April of 2000. At the urging of his mental health counselor he begin to journal and within that journaling begin to write poetry to work through grief, anger, and loss. This lead him to leave his job of twenty-four years at Boeing and return to school at Antioch to achieve a dream long thought dead, to write.