Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge: A Gray Winter Day

It was a cold winter day. I wasn't sure if I had missed the Snow and Ross Geese that migrate through the park but I decided to take a chance. The ride up was a long misty gray highway and it seemed longer than usual.

I needed a bit of nature, even though my backyard is full of chickadees, kinglets, cardinals and bluejays, there are too many distractions. Too many things to do, the television and the daily life struggles, so I went up to Hagerman to escape for a little while.

I wrote this about the morning.....it seemed like a long endless gray since Christmas

A Soft Morning, the winter breath of hungry ghosts

gnawing at my spine and cortex

it was as if we were both barely alive

me and this gray landscape

all colors given up

all light and character absent

we were both colorless forms

an old oak

shaking off the autumn

the wind rushed through

breaking limbs

leaving scars

but that's what winter does

it breaks us to the bones

leaving a shell that believes

in spring

that remembers color

A soft morning

awake and alive

but my soul asleep

in some gray lake

where the frost keeps the reeds

still

in winter all we have left

is our skeleton and a force of wind

our will

The Snow Geese were still there, not quite as many as previously, but just as loud and beautiful. They looked more like large white stones as they huddled in masses in the fields. Again they kept their distance but with less cars they all waddled closer to the road to get a drink. 

What I enjoyed the most was the sound of the constant chatter and a new chorus would begin as another ended. I got out of the car to a huge flog that covered the sky as they reshuffled the flock.

Besides the ducks there were many hawks including several kestrels, red-tailed and red shouldered hawks. As I was leaving I got a last glimpse of a hawk scanning a field outside the refuge. 

It was a very cold gray day but I enjoyed the needed escape. I also got some sketches for future paintings as well, so stay tuned. Let me know what  you thought of this post, more poetry? Less?

Did the photographs make you feel like you were there? I would love any input on this post. Have a happy New Year and get out there and enjoy nature.