Now we are in the cold

by Gordon Maclellan

Now we are in the cold
Now we are in the hunting time,
And the wild geese fly in from the north of the world,
Stitching grey clouds to the hills below
With the long, wavering threads of their flight.
Winter waits,
For the silent, cautious deer,
For the birds to settle in the stubble,
for the hungry fox to take a chance.

Now we are in the cold
Now we are in the hunting time,
And the stillness breathes
In the softest voice of the wind,
Whispering between the trunks, under the branches,
Among summer’s bones in the echoing wood,
Winter waits,
In the cracked ice,
In the wonder of an oak leaf,
Frosted sharp on the bare ground.

Now we are in the cold,
Now we are in the dark,
And we are hunted by the wildness,
And a bitter wind through the treetops
And the cold, brittle silence of a snowy night.
And now, winter waits,
For the sigh after the storm,
For the single candle on the window-sill,
For my heart settling quiet beside a midnight hearth.