• Has it all been said?
    The Winter Wonderland,
    the landscape under coverlet,
    dreaming in a soft white bed.

    The crack
    breaks the underwater silence:
    the sound of branches bending
    under unaccustomed weight.
    See the tips of bamboo leaves
    dark against the purity:
    cloak of virgin crystals that lies
    on all the branches in the quiet garden.

    A Christmas scene?
    too seldom seen,
    relic of happy childhood,
    the short-lived beauty
    that dissolves before our eager eyes.