Note from 2006 Poet Laureate, Deborah Fries:
Welcome to the first of several visits from E-Calliope, your community Muse! In this first
visit, the Muse asks you to consider how we approach writing a poem, and wants you to try doing it through your senses. After the Muse gets you using your senses to write a winter poem, you’ll mail it back to us, for posting on February 1.


Musings about sensing winter:
Our encounter with winter engages our senses in ways that are different from other seasons.

We feel cold air on our skin, and a chill throughout our body. Our body shakes in
response to the extremes of the outer world.

When we are outside, we smell wood smoke instead of fresh-cut grass. We smell snow
"in the air."

The green, lush world of summer is replaced by a minimalist palette of brown, gray, black
and white – a drab backdrop against which we easily see color: a red cardinal, pink hat,
blue mitten in the street. On snow-covered days, we are blinded by the sun bouncing off
so much whiteness. Days are short; nights dark and long.

As temperatures drop, sounds are amplified. Boots crunch across snow on sub-zero
mornings, and spinning tires whir loudly on snow-packed hills.

Retreating from the harsh elements, we find interiors cozy, and take special pleasures in
warm foods, warms baths, and thick, warm covers. Or we become restless in our sense of
confinement, our "cabin fever."

For some people, the sensual experiences of winter are experienced as energizing and
evocative. For others, the bleakness of the external world is reflected in a deadening of
feeling, or "seasonal affective disorder."


Your Muse visits:
We are going to write poems about winter, which identify a state of mind through the
senses. That means that you are going to approach your subject matter – joy, regret,
longing, contentment – through your eyes and ears, nose and skin.


The Muse challenges you:
And just to keep things interesting, your poem MUST contain the following five words:
Lavender, Glassine, Mounded, Cedar, Shadowy.


The Muse Sets a Deadline:
Send your winter poems to Montcopoet@comcast.net by January 19th for February 1st posting on the E-Calliope blog.