A Neighborly poem to help you cope with winter

"Here's one to share with you or any other folk."

Valley Winters

Well, old man winter, we see you are back once more

With cold and blowing snow, you attack us to the core.

You delight in seeing us in multiple layers of clothes

Wrapped from our feet, right to the tip of the nose.

Your menace comes worse from a northerly direction;

We can't change your coming like a course correction.

You give spring, summer and fall a wonderful feel;

Calendar pages advance as the seasons become real.

Your wind chills are biting and pierce right to the bone.

We huddle and shiver to your blasts, but never alone.

You may single us one out by one but no one is amused;

Cold winds can numb the noggin, we almost feel abused.

Your seasonal visit can be looked at as an annual event;

For centuries in the valley, your ice-cold gusts were sent.

The native dweller who hunted and gathered on the land,

Who lived in community peacefully within a tribal band,

The early settler who set out to till the tall prairie grass,

Who clustered in and near towns, watching winter pass,

And modern human inhabitants, many living in a city,

Winter never gave its hardy inhabitants any sort of pity.

To next year's winter we look with realistic anticipation;

Please, no great blizzard storms, said with exclamation!

So you've been around these parts before, I surely see.

You'll come again another year, and visit not just me.

If you have an item of interest for this column, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107, fax it to 241-5487 or email blind@forumcomm.com.