WINTER PRAYER
by James Crews
Winter Prayer
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The world moans this morning,
and the whole house with it.
Snow blows against the windows,
making rippled drifts on each side
of the now impassable driveway.
Fine by me. I’m held inside this
pool of lamplight with a perfectly
milky cup of steaming coffee
around which I wrap both hands,
my own form of winter prayer.
A blue fleece blanket is draped
over my shoulders, with memories
of every summer I’ve ever lived
locked inside me — riotous green
leaves bursting my seams, so filled
with heat, all I have to do is
touch the frosted glass, and a tiny
porthole appears, through which
I can see the light at the end
of this and every storm.
James Crews’ work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New Republic, as well as on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry newspaper column. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Writing & Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is the author of four collections of award-winning poetry, including The Book of What Stays (Prairie Schooner Prize and Foreword Book of the Year Citation, 2011), Telling My Father (Cowles Prize, 2017), Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of several anthologies of poetry: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection; and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. He leads Mindfulness & Writing retreats online and throughout the country, and works as a creative coach with groups and individuals. He lives with his husband, Brad Peacock, in Shaftsbury, Vermont.
*James Crews has given us permission to publish this poem.
