- Collaborations used to be fairly frequent on PoetBay some years ago now... and I've been missing them.  So, I asked Thomas if he had a line he liked, but could never lead anywhere.  He sent me this one line: "the million calamitous jewels of a wrecked windshield", and this is where it led us. Thanks Thomas, this was an awful lot of fun!

Like an effect
of a million calamitous
jewel-like bits of a shattered
windshield strewn
about on a hot pavement
in a strong sun,
the glimmering specks of
light on the snowflakes’ tips
illuminated the clearing all around.

*

This snowscape is hard,
glassy with unyielding light:
sequined with specks of blue,
bristly with spikes of ice.
What language
can describe the scene?
Something runic and northern,
an alphabet of thorns
encased in frost.

*

And as the cold creeps in,

never the subtle visitor,

the Northern heart knows 

too well its language,

but ever forsaking it, 

is simply unforeseeable,

'cause where else would

we be able to behold such

complex beauty?