A Tidings of Magpies

 Wild Geese by Charles Goodrich I'm picking beans when the geese fly over, Blue Lake pole beans I figure to blanch and freeze. Maybe pick some dilly beans. And there will be more beans to give to the neighbors, forcibly if necessary. The geese come over so low I can hear their wings creak, can see their tail feathers making fine adjustments. They slip-stream along so gracefully, riding on each other's wind, surfing the sky. Maybe after the harvest I'll head south. Somebody told me Puerto Vallarta is nice. I'd be happy with a cheap room. Rice and beans at every meal. Swim a little, lay on the beach. Who are you kidding, Charles? You don't like to leave home in the winter. Spring, fall, or summer either. True. But I do love to watch those wild geese fly over, feel these impertinent desires glide through me. Then get back to work.

Ice by Gail Mazur In the warming house, children lace their skates, bending, choked over their thick jackets. A Franklin stove keeps the place so cozy it's hard to imagine why anyone would leave, clumping across the frozen beach to the river. December's always the same at Ware's Cove, the first sheer ice, black, then white and deep until the city sends trucks of men with wooden barriers to put up the boys' hockey rink. An hour of skating after school, of trying wobbly figure-8's, an hour of distances moved backwards without falling, then—twilight, the warming house steamy with girls pulling on boots, their chafed legs aching. Outside, the hockey players keep playing, slamming the round black puck until it's dark, until supper. At night, a shy girl comes to the cove with her father. Although there isn't music, they glide arm in arm onto the blurred surface together, braced like dancers....

The Bloody Mary by Susan Donnelly Sunday in late December calls for one, with a celery stalk and faint taste of Worcestershire, to be sipped while eating poached egg and corned beef hash, in a hotel dining room with someone you love. Touch the hairs at his wrist as the warmth endorses all bed-lingering, non-churchgoing. It's the solstice, remember, when your frugal father would hand around dollar bills so the day would last longer. Stir ice into the rich red and consider such Celtic rituals, as you watch, beyond the tall windows, pilgrims traveling the paths past snow-fringed trees in the park. please note: photography by Marc Piasecki

I was very much hoping to go to the above cafe tonight and listen to a little music and eat a little cafe food. Hubby, however, is still recovering from a horrible gastrointestinal virus that he picked up in his ER which I'm crossing my fingers and hoping is only passed on in his ER. Don't want it. And would like to be away from sick people for a night. Ahhh, well, next weekend is another two days. It's cold here. Maybe feels colder because we've had such a mild time of it so far, but that wind is piercing. Good time to computer shop for a down parka on sale especially since we're saving money by not going out. I do love a win-win :>) Fishing in the Keep of Silence by Linda Gregg There is a hush now while the hills rise up and God is going to sleep. He trusts the ship of Heaven to take over and proceed beautifully as He lies dreaming in the lap of the world. He knows the owls will guard the sweetness of the soul in their massive ...

Undone by Naomi Shihab Nye The workmen closed our street and sidewalk with striped yellow sawhorses. They noisily drilled up all four corner curbs. Their faces focused, intent on the task. They poured wet cement—raking, smoothing to damp slopes. Cement mixer rumbled and churned—six men, two days of work. Everyone detoured around them. I could easily have gone out with a nail at sunset to engrave a moon and star in one corner of the blank gray slab, and even if no one else noticed the fresh cement had been inscribed, I would have known, every time I rode my bike down the smooth slope to the old gray street you once crossed on two feet. It makes me glad I never had to push a wheelchair with you in it down that slope. Could have written your name, made a heart nearly too tiny to see—metal nail file, ice pick, needle-nose pliers, stick. Those were the days I paused, so stunned, in the middle of everything, as the shock swept over me. How could you leave your desk...

  Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye A man crosses the street in rain, stepping gently, looking two times north and south, because his son is asleep on his shoulder. No car must splash him. No car drive too near to his shadow. This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo but he's not marked. Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE. His ear fills up with breathing. He hears the hum of a boy's dream deep inside him. We're not going to be able to live in this world if we're not willing to do what he's doing with one another. The road will only be wide. The rain will never stop falling. please note: photography by Arnold Genthe, 1869-1942, Chinatown, San Francisco

by Mark Perlberg In frozen January, my friends and I would drag discarded Christmas trees from the sidewalks of our shivering town to an empty lot. One match and fire raced down a dry sprig like a spurt of life. A puff of wind and the pile ignited, flamed above our heads. Silk waves. Spice of pitch and balsam in our nostrils. We stood in a ring around the body of the fire— drawn close as each boy dared, our faces stinging from the heat and cold, lash of that wild star burst on a winter night.

We went to a wedding on New Year's Eve...the eldest son of my best friend from high school. My friend who recently died. The wedding was held in the same church as her funeral four months ago. Seems like yesterday. The wedding was beautiful, and joyful, perhaps more so because of the sorrow that each one of us felt at our loss of her. It's no secret that not all marriages end happily ever after and the priest talked about the courage that this couple had in making a commitment of marriage and in having hope for their future. He is correct. It does take courage and, of course, his words were meant to do more than seal the deal for this young couple. The priest was aware of all the broken hearts in that church on this cold winter evening and of the power of love to heal them. To believe that is a path of the brave. A Wedding Poem by Thomas R. Smith   Bright faces surround the woman in white, the man in black, the sweetness of their att...

The Coming of Light by Mark Strand Even this late it happens: the coming of love, the coming of light. You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves, stars gather, dreams pour into your pillows, sending up warm bouquets of air. Even this late the bones of the body shine and tomorrow's dust flares into breath. please note: photo by Romeo Ranoco / Reuters