From Lynda’s Journal – Red December ~ a poem
From Lynda’s Journal
Red December
Lynda McKinney Lambert
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#The Poem
#Red December
New-fallen snow glimmers in pre-dawn darkness
shriveled red barberries dangle from thin bare branches
I shuffle my feet, dig in to feel solid ground
near the place where my Father’s red roses
are surrounded by pillows of snow
slumbering safe in dark red December.
My heavy suede boots part the snow
It’s too early for the red cardinals
“Where do they go at night?”
A sharp wind makes me huddle deeper
into my bright red boucle jacket
while my two dogs search random trails
follow the long marks, meander downhill.
On a crisp day in mid-December
I desire red raspberry jam on warm toast
linger by the tall pampas grass
weighted down to the ground with icy snow
I think of strawberry Sundays with whipped cream
I recall wearing Neiman Marcus Red lipstick and
dancing all night in
hot red stilettos and tight blue jeans.
We turn around – for the return home
the dogs circle in the frozen pachysandra patches
stiff, malachite-green shrunken leaves.
In memories I see my neighbor walking to her car
she wears a cranberry red hat, worsted red wool coat, flat, scarlet red shoes
carries a true-red leather handbag like the one I bought last Sunday.
I watched her from the upstairs window.
In her 80s, she revealed how to live a gallant life.
No cars pass us on the country road this morning in red December
Where it is perpetual winter.
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#The Backstory
This poem is a perspective of winter time in Western Pennsylvania where I have lived my entire life. As I walk my dogs, I am paying attention to every detail, sound, and sight.
I focus on the color, red, in my world and in my memories.
I combined memories of people, with our landscape. Life happens in layers of imagery. It is multi-layered, and this sense of the passing of time is what I distill in my poetry.
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Published:
Red December (2016) poem
_Proverse Hong Kong Poetry Prize for Single Verse
Accepted August 27, 2017
Published: 2017, Anthology, Mingled Voices 2.
_Lambert, Lynda McKinney. Star Signs, DLD Books, 2019
_Lambert, Lynda McKinney. first snow, chapbook, 30 Poems, Finishing Line Press, 2020
_Newsreel, Audio by Lynda_December Issue 2022.
_Poem From the Professor’s Journal, Walking by Inner Vision Blog, Dec. 5, , 2022.
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Read more in my NEW BOOK!
Mock-up #6 : Songs for the Pilgrimage.
Courtesy AllAuthor
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This NEW book is currently in production at Perkins Library, for distribution through the library and through NLS (BARD).
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Poems, Non-fiction Stories, Journal Entries, Meditations on the Psalms.