On Considering Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters, by DeWitt Clinton

Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters, by Hendrick Avercamp (Netherlands), 1608.

On Considering Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters 

We’re pretty much done with winter here
Though today the rain showers have turned
The whole place into an ice palace no one
Really appreciates unless one has the luxury
Of looking outside from the inside where
Almost all of us are, at this moment, taking
Note of the few skaters outside without 
Skates, some leaving earth for only a brief
Time, then returning without having seen
Any of the heavens, just a slight slip that
Takes the whole body out of what keeps
Us all grounded until we step on the patch
That will catch so many unscheduled lifts
Only to be returned briefly, a second later,
Arriving not upright but at a slant, not feet
Landing as we are accustomed to, but our
Already sore back will be the first to reach
Earth, and none will consider any laws of
Gravity that keep us here, and not up 
There, but soon, we will watch the skaters
Attempting to regain poise as the feet 
Slip on even more of the place no one
Should place a foot, but then, this is
Where we are, for now, and then we turn
To the kitchen to warm up what’s left
Of homemade soup, and warm bread,
And pretend that it’s really no different
Than any skater who looks out on a 
Medieval pond seeing those who are
Gliding, and those, sadly, who are not.

DeWitt Clinton

DeWitt Clinton recently retired after teaching 30 years in the Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He continues to write and publish short creative non-fiction and poetry in a variety of national and international journals including works published  in 2016 in Wise Guys: An Online Magazine, Negative Capability, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Verse-Virtual, New Verse News, Peacock Journal, and Stark: The Poetry Journal No. 1 which featured a “shortlisted” poem for the Wisehouse International Poetry Award.