Chinook

[ampoule]

Chinook

The frozen ground,
The warming winds sweep down,
The thawing begins,
And then it snows and it blows,
And the landscape is frozen once again.
We check our balance and watch our steps,
So as not to slip and fall.

I was frozen for so long,
Your life swept across mine,
The thawing began,
And then you turned away and I felt the chill
of this flesh and bone freezing once again.
I check my balance and watch my step,
Oh please do not let me slip and fall.

Someone is frozen in place,
Who needs sweeping up,
To be thawed out,
And if he turns to me, he'll feel no chill,
no worries of freezing once again,
He will walk lines with his eyes closed,
For I am not chinook, I am spring.

~

(I wrote the first two stanzas several years ago and just today added the last stanza. Should I have let it go? Is it better without it?)

amp, December Nineteenth, TwoThousand & September First, TwoThousandSeven

[CdnReader]

I love the first two, Amp, but it does seem that the third doesn't quite "meld" with the others. And ending with "please do not let me slip and fall" is quite arresting I think. But it's probably more important what YOU think than what I think. :)

[ampoule]

I really really agree with you about the third. I think I added it because so often my poems make people feel so sad for me. :(

[CdnReader]

Oh, but I think ending after stanza two is in fact very hopeful!! Not sad at all!

[Pendragon]

Well, I like the third verse, and I can see a relation to the other two. But then to me the spawning of the salmon up-stream against the current means a lot, for I have an up-hill battle to fight each day. (Chinook are salmon) The return of Spring after Winter is also something I look forward to, when my lilac blooms in my front yard and the catbirds sing outside the window.

In the end, Amp, it is your own choice, let none sway you either way. The poet is the master of his/her poems.

Pen

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Smilies/Soccar.gif

[firefangled]

Chinook

The frozen ground,
The warming winds sweep down,
The thawing begins,
And then it snows and it blows,
And the landscape is frozen once again.
We check our balance and watch our steps,
So as not to slip and fall.

I was frozen for so long,
Your life swept across mine,
The thawing began,
And then you turned away and I felt the chill
of this flesh and bone freezing once again.
I check my balance and watch my step,
Oh please do not let me slip and fall.

Someone is frozen in place,
Who needs sweeping up,
To be thawed out,
And if he turns to me, he'll feel no chill,
no worries of freezing once again,
He will walk lines with his eyes closed,
For I am not chinook, I am spring.




This is lovely and sad, but for you sadness is not meant to stay. You almost always assert your strength in your poems, as you do here. I would never think of you as a sad person. Resilient, yes. Hopeful, yes. Quintessentially human, yes.

The last line is perfect! I feel like you are Stands with Fist in Dances with Wolves saying this line.

[Poppy]

I added it because so often my poems make people feel so sad for me. :(

And I have to admit I was one. I like it as you posted it. And I think there is also hope in the last stanza. To me Spring is for new growth.

[ampoule]

Thank you for the comments everyone.
Interesting about the salmon Pen. You probably know that here I am referring to the Chinook winds though. When I lived in Anchorage the Chinooks would leave us walking on at least a foot of ice as the snow would melt and refreeze in so many layers.
This might be of interest...
These wind patterns are named for the country of the Chinook Native Americans, which lies in the direction these winds were realized to originate from. The same term is used on the British Columbia Coast and in the Puget Sound area to designate a warm, very wet, southwesterly (from the direction of the Chinook country) wind, which is in fact the same weather system prior to its being stripped of its moisture by the various mountain ranges in between.
In popular myth, Chinook is supposed to mean "snow eater", as a strong Chinook can make a foot of snow all but vanish inside of one day. The snow partially melts, and partially evaporates in the dry wind.

a little note: I used to attend the Seward Silver (Coho) Salmon Derby with my father off Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula.

[firefangled]

Thank you for the comments everyone.
Interesting about the salmon Pen. You probably know that here I am referring to the Chinook winds though. When I lived in Anchorage the Chinooks would leave us walking on at least a foot of ice as the snow would melt and refreeze in so many layers.
This might be of interest...
These wind patterns are named for the country of the Chinook Native Americans, which lies in the direction these winds were realized to originate from. The same term is used on the British Columbia Coast and in the Puget Sound area to designate a warm, very wet, southwesterly (from the direction of the Chinook country) wind, which is in fact the same weather system prior to its being stripped of its moisture by the various mountain ranges in between.
In popular myth, Chinook is supposed to mean "snow eater", as a strong Chinook can make a foot of snow all but vanish inside of one day. The snow partially melts, and partially evaporates in the dry wind.

a little note: I used to attend the Seward Silver (Coho) Salmon Derby with my father off Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula.

Are the Chnook not the same winds that move west and cause the Santa Annas?

[ampoule]

The Santana.....could be. I believe I read that they are the winds that pass over the deserts. I found this quote I love, read by John Corbett at the beginning of one of the Northern Exposure episodes, perhaps my favorite television show.

“ Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. ”
—Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind"

The wind is a tricky thing.

[firefangled]

The Santana.....could be. I believe I read that they are the winds that pass over the deserts. I found this quote I love, read by John Corbett at the beginning of one of the Northern Exposure episodes, perhaps my favorite television show.

“ Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. ”
—Raymond Chandler, "Red Wind"

The wind is a tricky thing.

Oh yea! Sounds like Alaska. In the 60s my Grandfather, then already near 80 used to drive to Alaska every year towing his one-man Air Stream trailer. At that time the last 1500 miles was a gravel amd dirt road.

He told us of the fishing wheels the native people made. They would turn like a waterwheel in the current and pick up salmon and dump them on the way down into a corral in the water. Perhaps Pen knows of these, but where his people are from I think only Nantahala or Cullasaja would be large enough.

I just read this again and it is a wonderful poem, Ampoule. You should be proud.

[Pendragon]

Thank you for the comments everyone.
Interesting about the salmon Pen. You probably know that here I am referring to the Chinook winds though. When I lived in Anchorage the Chinooks would leave us walking on at least a foot of ice as the snow would melt and refreeze in so many layers.
This might be of interest...
These wind patterns are named for the country of the Chinook Native Americans, which lies in the direction these winds were realized to originate from. The same term is used on the British Columbia Coast and in the Puget Sound area to designate a warm, very wet, southwesterly (from the direction of the Chinook country) wind, which is in fact the same weather system prior to its being stripped of its moisture by the various mountain ranges in between.
In popular myth, Chinook is supposed to mean "snow eater", as a strong Chinook can make a foot of snow all but vanish inside of one day. The snow partially melts, and partially evaporates in the dry wind.

a little note: I used to attend the Seward Silver (Coho) Salmon Derby with my father off Resurrection Bay on the Kenai Peninsula.I didn't know about the winds, but I do now. I was aware of the Native Americans, but I guess to me this is what the word "Chinook" always brings to mind (The Native Americans have special fishing rights when they spawn):

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Four/chinook_salmon_oregon.jpg

A large, noble fish, no?

Pen

[ampoule]

Very noble indeed!