Cold Rain Comes

When low skies gather gray on gray  

enfolding days in dim light 

then ‘spring’ is a sterile doctrine 

and ‘summer’ is just a theory 

of celestial alignment 

shrouded in the winter mind 

and cold rain comes before the spring.

Once there was a season filled 

with languid days that seemed to stretch forever.

But fresh mornings fade 

and all endeavors end at last.

Summer grace encounters fall 

then founders on the winter mind 

where cold rain comes instead of spring.

With God and wisdom filed and stored, 

our angel nature now ignored, 

then what can lead a frozen soul 

from tight-argued passion 

to kind-hearted action

breaking through the winter mind? 

A cold rain comes to usher spring.

So when the low gray gathers hold 

enfolding lives in dim light; 

when what was vital cracks and dries 

and old achievements ossify,  

from broken days embrace the night, 

engage the frigid winter mind – 

After cold rain comes the spring.

"Ice on Leaves"
by David Noah,
Winterville, Georgia