From my corner of refinement and culture

I'm sure most of you far exceed my accomplishments as the?ÿmodern "renaissance man".?ÿ I dropped out of high school I 1969.?ÿ?ÿ For most of my life my only literary accomplishment was my repertoire of ethnic jokes. ?ÿWith most eventually archived due to the current spirit of political correction...and my second marriage to a daughter?ÿof Polish immigrants.?ÿ

But I?ÿdo enjoy good poetry.?ÿ And although my current home in Oklahoma doesn't?ÿendure the?ÿharsh winters of my childhood in Chaffee County, CO, I still remember the dreary?ÿcompleteness and totality of months below zero with the entire world blanketed with feet of snow. Some of you snowbound in northern latitudes may relate.

I came upon this poem recently that tugged at my heartstrings by the lingering memories of those winters. Here is an excerpt.?ÿ Bonne lecture.

?ÿ

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter frosty wind made moan,?ÿ

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone,

snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,?ÿ

in the bleak midwinter, long ago.

?ÿ

Christina G. Rossetti, British Poet (1830-1894)

?ÿ