By Celia Coates

I had been wondering how to begin this new year in WINN, a year that everyone is hoping will be better than the dark and troubled year just past. Then, within days of each other, two gifts arrived – first, a photograph that my sister, Judith Sellers, had taken in her garden in upstate New York after the first winter snow, and then, a poem from my friend, Molly Frederick. The photograph heads this post. The poem that Molly titled “Mysteries,” is here,

Who is red as a winter berry? Who is red
as a single red rose
on a thorn-scattered stem? Cardinal, of course!
He sings a cheerful song. I hear it yet.

 When cardinal enters a fine-lit place,
his feathers fluff and his crest grows thick
and tall. His beak gleams bright with gold.

 Cardinal is not a ruby burning, not a flame rising.
And he is certainly not a red volcano erupting –
this tiny mountain filled with life.

 Oh, no. He is, at all times, in all places,
his cardinal self.

Red is his color – a color meant to be well-seen.
And it becomes him.
He is summer’s strongest day all in one place.
Why – even hidden in shadows – he thrills.

 Now, many days later, as I look back, he remains
more handsome still.

 Flowers, birds, and berries. Do they strive – all
things – to make us whole?

May we live with beauty and strength and cheer in 2021.
May we make ourselves and our world whole.

(To see the image, please go to http://www.WINNpost.org)

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