SEVEN REFLECTIONS ON ICE

   Icebreakers are ships plying polar seas

but they are also opening conversation

gambits. 

   Cracks in lake ice are rarely wise cracks.

Wisecracks seldom break conversational

ice. 

  It is not usually wise to play with fire.

Ice too may be hazardous if unreliably

thin.

    Some ideas may be called breakthroughs.

So may unexpected descents through lake

ice.

    Stares from some may be cold icy glares.

Stairs may also be glare ice. Please tread

 lightly.

      Jack Frost writes ice on window panes.

Robert Frost writes of pain in fire and

ice.

    To kill is to ice, in some old noir stories.

But icing is also the finishing touch on a

cake.

Doug Westendorp, 2018

THERE IS NO CORNER

                There is no corner

Around which

There is no pain.

              There is no pain

Within which

There is no gift.

            There is no gift

Without which

There is no love.

            There is no love

Within which

There is no grace.

            There is no grace

Around which

There is no peace.

            There is no peace

Without which

There is no light.

              There is no light

Within which

There is no life.

             There is no life

Around which

There is no corner. 

Doug Westendorp, 2018