Frost's First Trick
Poem for The Sound of First Frost Challenge.
The crisp crunch of a different kind.
Everything brown and dead has left.
Ethereal and surreal, for sure—
but the warning call,
the harbinger of winter's return,
is more grounded, less pristine.
<>
The first groan after the first touch
on a frosted car door and roof—
it burns and singes unleathered flesh.
Serene and brittle, the world aches;
the sun has forsaken us again.
<>
Scientifically, we know
the Earth has tilted on its axis,
though we didn't feel the 23.5-degree shift.
We felt its absence—
the sunlight's intensity,
lost to the harsh reality
that weather, like the accident of birth
to give forth nationality,
is but an accident of nature.
<>
It is neither warm nor cold,
it is positional—experiential.
The sanitised scents of spring's prelude
are a mind game, as are the colours
we see throughout the year—
those reds, greens, and yellows replaced
by blues, silvers, browns—
all cerebral illusions: optic, olfactory,
vestibulocochlear, facial, glossopharyngeal.
<>
Please echo the accent and cadence
of your own or Cutter's London drawl.
Where The Pledge becomes The Turn—
and all ends with The Prestige.
<>
The crisp crunch of a different kind—
everything brown and dead has left.
Ethereal, surreal—for sure—
but the warning call,
the harbinger of winter’s return,
is more grounded, less pristine.
<>
The white that cleans,
the white that dresses the world virginal,
in wait for spring's rebirth.
*
Thanks for reading!
Author's Notes: For those who don't get the references, this poem is inspired in part by my annoyance at poetic odes to the frost's appearance and the Christopher Nolan masterpiece The Prestige.
About the Creator
Paul Stewart
Award-Winning Writer, Poet, Scottish-Italian, Subversive.
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Comments (11)
"The white that cleans,/the white that dresses the world virginal,/in wait for spring's rebirth." Might just be the greatest description of snow I've ever read. Everyone laughs about me not calling myself a poet (I laugh, too), but it's reading words like that where I go, "See now *that's* poetry." Versus the typically quite literal prose poems I draft. Well done, sir!
What a great way to teach about the winter season and the explanations that are real. Great job.
Oh wow, I didn't expect you to take on a scientific approach for this challenge. You nailed it!
Love that you’re making it your own, while poking at others a bit. For some reason, the line “it’s positional…experiential” stops me, makes me think. Feels borh scientific and poetic at the same time
Such a thoughtful piece. I love the way you've balanced science and art.
"the white that dresses the world virginal" - those who have never driven an arctic city with streets piled at the curb with six feet and higher of snow that is dirty from autos passing, or cinders to unslick the roads, can call it this. Snow inside a deep fir forest can be described as silent, as footsteps are muffled under branches that hang low. Humid cold bites into us, and never think to put your tongue on an iced over pole like Ralphie in a Christmas Story. Nice job, Paul.
"the white that dresses the world virginal" - those who have never driven an arctic city with streets piled at the curb with six feet and higher of snow that is dirty from autos passing, or cinders to unslick the roads, can call it this. Snow inside a deep fir forest can be described as silent, as footsteps are muffled under branches that hang low. Humid cold bites into us, and never think to put your tongue on an iced over pole like Ralphie in a Christmas Story. Nice job, Paul.
I'm a simple man, I see the Prestige and I get on my soapbox about how it's the greatest movie ever made.
I love how this poem goes against the tide of the typical poem to the changing of the seasons. It sounds so bitter, like the bitter cold biting at your hands if you’re momentarily stupid enough to touch snow without gloves. I might not get all the references since I haven’t seen The Prestige, but what I do get of it, I love!
This poem is also tilted on its axis and has a fresh crunch to it! Great work! Very well done!
I love where your mind went to mesh The Prestige with the change of seasons, and the illusion which takes place. Well done !