As Winter Ends

( after Louise Glück )
  
   
I recall in the year  
once I came into season,  
after the leaves all left,  
   
in the abandon of Fall,  
and the earth held its breath  
from the long chill I wore.  
   
I no longer felt alone,  
not on my own, to sort out    
the poetry of myself.  
   
To recognize you only  
as an atrium of airy clouds,  
not within, like a pulse.  
   
The life that began to  
resurface as I rolled my grief  
as thunder of lightning,  
   
a bursting from the ice,  
to announce you in the rain—  
a solitary song, an ache.