Winter's Divine Painter

White
   snowflakes
   cover Morton
   highlighting
   everything that was
   hidden
   through the summer months.

Winter
   starkness
   emptiness
   underbrush cleared
   burned
   dragged away
   and what was
    hidden now is
    revealed.

Hiding
   places of
   deer
   coyote
   hawk
   are exposed
    as they
    go
    deeper and deeper
    into the
    wildness
    further from
    footpaths
    trails
    roads
     to find the
     solitary peace
     for life.

They'll
   remain
   invisible
   except for footprints
   in snow
   on branches
    bearing
    high winds
    sometimes blizzard
     always searching
      to survive
      to feed
      yet out sight.

Snow
   tracing dead
   trees
   fallen branches
   fall's weeds hanging on
   and pathways
    long abandoned
    by fair-weather
    nature enthusiasts.

I wear
   the scarf
    pulled down
    as a hat
   I buldge with down
    feather insulation
   slog in
    insulated boots
   carrying the
    freezing eye with me
     out to the hidden
     places
     to spy on life
     in the wild
     in the wilderness
     and return to bring
      reports to those
     who have discovered
      God in the
       wild,
      God within the
       frozen snow covered
        creation.

The Divine
   has
   enjoyed
   painting
   Winter!



Richard W Smith
December 1, 2010