Snowy Forest Tracery Poem by Denis Mair

(for a painting by Abdelhaq Djellab posted Nov.10,2024, above which he inscribed a quote by FDR as an epigraph.)

--- 'The only storm that came to us from the east and did not carry thorns with it is Khalil Gibran.' (Franklin D. Roosevelt) *
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A tracery drawn in stark contrasts suggests

the austere grace of a hardwood forest in winter.

One inhales the briskness of air after a storm,

in which crystalline flakes sifted through forest pillars

and whirling gusts shook limber vines.

The picture makes me think of New England,

perhaps because Khalil Gibran's early years in America

were spent in Massachusetts (if memory serves) .

He endured the coldness of a displaced adolescence,

yet transformed its chilly hours into powerful flights

able to move the heart of a president

who wielded a different kind of power.
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