Winter Elegy 

 

I sing the low elegy

of winter, the subdued song

of darkness washing over

whatever light will lift us

 

when the right time comes.

This song is sad but makes

the invisible light we carry

even brighter by the contrast

 

it prepares us for.  The song

we hear in this dark is not wrong,

but must be listened to differently

from the musical exuberance

 

of light anyone can hear.

To hear the pulse of dark

song is to hear a song

that carries the light encoded

 

within itself. You don’t have

to see God in this dark song

to believe in the coming

of the light but unless you’re

 

in tune with the world of spirit

your ears will not perceive

the dark elegy of winter turning

and lifting slowly toward rebirth.

 

 

 

 
Norbert Krapf, Indiana Poet Laureate 2008-10, has published nine poetry collections, the most recent last year from Indiana Univ. Press, Songs in Sepia and Black and White. This year American Dreams: Border Crossings, seven prose poem cycles, will appear from Mongrel Empire Press. Norbert taught for 34 years at Long Island University, where he directed the C.W. Post Poetry Center. As Indiana Poet Laureate, he stressed the reunion of poetry and music and held a 2011-12 Creative Renewal Fellowship to combine poetry and blues from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, where he has lived since 2004. He was a featured reader at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival last year.