Winter Quiet

In the United States, whether you celebrate them or not, the cultural winter holidays tend to be a bit disruptive, yet the craziness of these holidays is juxtaposed with the deep and solemn quiet of winter as it exists in nature.   The cacophony of birdsong gives way to the quiet chirping of chickadees as most species fly south to warmer climes.  Snow blankets the land, muffling all sound.  Walking in the northern forest in the winter, one’s breath seems loud.

Like the migrating birds, many of the musicians with whom I make music become scarce this time of year because they travel or are otherwise busy.   Therefore it is a good opportunity for me to look simultaneously into the depths of my creative soul and my computer’s hard drive for creations put aside for just such a time as this.  Even as some of my usual creative outlets are suppressed I am having fun revisiting old ideas and discovering new ones.

One of the new ones is a tune called “Shorty” in honor of Trombone Shorty.

At Eye On Life meanwhile we continue to be blessed with a steady stream of new poetry, for example, we recently welcomed poet Robert Demaree into the ranks of our contributing poets;  in addition, we are looking forward to publishing more of Donal Mahoney’s work tomorrow, and sometime this week Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois will be returning to The Poetry Locksmith as well.   We are so fortunate to have so many remarkable poetic voices enrich our pages.