Farewell to Winter

I can feel the tomb of Winter opening,
The locked vault releases its frigid lifeless air,
Making way for the colour and warmth of Spring.

A return of the honey eaters, monarchs and flowers,
No longer locked in the realm of the dead,
The grey clouds clear,
and my mind feels hope again.

A time for drowned sorrows to dry and bloom,
To feel the sunlight again on my tired face,
To breathe the country air,
rich with a world in blossom.

Instead of cold darkness,
and memories of death,
It’s a time for birth,
art and light.

I breathing in fresh air,
after holding it for a season,
Stepping into the sunlight,
and I look older and greyer.

The season of ice has taken so much from me,
But today already feels different,
I hear my wife laughing
In the garden,
I watch our hounds
Playing in the sunlight.

And for the first time
In so very long.
I believe,
Everything
Is going to be alright.