Hi Paul:

Greetings from chilly Manhattan.  For those of us stuck in the ice and snow of the Northeast, idyllic days in Florida are, at best, the stuff of warm dreams. Here is “Northern Reverie,” a poem from my 2009 collection, Green Vistas.

Best wishes,
Charles Pierre

…dreams of warm tropic waters…. By Paul Goldfinger, 2013.  ©

Northern Reverie

It is winter here and the emptiness

of seascape extends in all directions.

This is the season of solitary walks

across miles of ice-crusted shoreline,

when the sun burns with a muted fire

and time slows against a gunmetal sky,

when the gulls alone are full of vigor

and scavenge in long drifts of debris

spread by the frigid tides. It is now

that my weariness with cold weather

leads to dreams of Caribbean beaches

dotted with palms, shells and bright

umbrellas, where warm tropic waters

relax my knotted body, as I swim

with over-arm stroke and even kick

to strengthen my limbs for the trek

to spring, which lingers so far away

from the snow along this frozen coast. 

CAMILLE    “Le Festin” from the movie  Ratatouille