Skip to main content

Poetry Friday: The Queen of In-Between

On a recent lunchtime walk, we were greeted by this wonderful figure, and I knew the moment I saw her that I would have to write a poem about her. 


Picture of a snowman on green grass with small patches of snow. The snowman has a brown maple leaf on it's head like a crown. The poem reads: Formed from winter’s first snowfall, crowned in autumn’s faded glory, she reigns between seasons — over squirrels who hurry-hurry-hurry to gather moss for lining nests, over birds who block out wintery chills with fluffed-out feathers on their chests, over crocuses and primroses that sleep and wait for spring. Winter’s frosts nip at her kingdom,  harbingers of change, but right now she rules the landscape: the Queen of In-Between. © 2021, Elisabeth Norton

We've been enjoying the signs of the changing seasons on our walks - including a first for us: watching a squirrel gather and shape a round bundle of moss, before scampering off to presumably bring it to its nest. 

Our Poetry Friday host today is Cathy over at Merely Day by Day. Like her, I find myself dipping in and out of Poetry Friday as life and other commitments permit, and she captures this perfectly in her poem.  Thank you for stopping by my little corner of the internet today. I hope you'll wander over to Cathy's blog for a roadmap to all the poetic goodness that awaits you this week. 

Labels:

Comments

  1. Irene LathamDecember 10, 2021 at 1:48 PM

    The Queen of In Between makes me smile! I'm so glad you wrote a poem about her. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janice ScullyDecember 10, 2021 at 2:34 PM

    Something about snow people and I love the idea of them presiding over outdoor life, this one at an in-between time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Janice ScullyDecember 10, 2021 at 2:35 PM

    Something about snow people and I love the idea of them presiding over outdoor life, this one at an in-between time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CathyDecember 10, 2021 at 3:06 PM

    I love this little glimpse of in-between. There's something about these intersections of time I find fascinating. Your first stanza captures it perfectly.

    Yes, I'm glad we have both managed to find our way into the Poetry Friday world in December. I'm guessing it's a good sign we have the bandwidth currently.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Linda BDecember 10, 2021 at 3:07 PM

    Echoing Irene, Elisabeth. We have our "first" snow today, not even enough to create our own "queen of in between" but your name will linger with me now! I love all her subjects!

    ReplyDelete
  6. TabathaDecember 10, 2021 at 3:49 PM

    Charming!

    ReplyDelete
  7. jamaDecember 10, 2021 at 4:24 PM

    Love the Queen of In-Between -- wonderful images and reflections. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. RuthDecember 10, 2021 at 9:05 PM

    Wonderful Queen of In-Between!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Tim KulpDecember 10, 2021 at 9:18 PM

    The Queen of In-between is so fun! Nice work! I really enjoyed the poem and picture. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  10. JoneDecember 11, 2021 at 2:51 AM

    Love the-queen-of-in-between is perfect. I love that winter 's frost nips.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bridget MageeDecember 11, 2021 at 12:26 PM

    The 'in-between' is where we all seem to be these days, Elisabeth. So glad you crossed paths with this Ice Queen and she inspired your poem.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mary LeeDecember 11, 2021 at 12:40 PM

    I love her! And I love the playful hands who made her, and your imagined life for her! We had a brief cold snap, but I woke up this morning to the mid 60s.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Linda MitchellDecember 11, 2021 at 1:45 PM

    What a wonderful observation and resulting poem. This kind of poem is so perfect for kids. I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  14. sycDecember 12, 2021 at 12:19 AM

    Perfectly captured the in-between

    ReplyDelete
  15. Alan j WrightDecember 12, 2021 at 12:25 AM

    Keen observation often leads to inspiration, Elisabeth. Your poem is testimony to this. Great get on your part- words and image combined to deliver a moment well and truly captured forever.

    ReplyDelete
  16. laurasalasDecember 12, 2021 at 12:56 PM

    This is so lovely--great extended metaphor!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Heidi MordhorstDecember 12, 2021 at 10:38 PM

    That's a wonderful title!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Carol VarsalonaDecember 13, 2021 at 4:43 PM

    I enjoyed your Queen of In-Between poem and the humorous remains of the snowman. He appears to be jolly with his leaf/dirt mixture. First two sentences of the poem brings a great visual to mind but the photo enhances your poem. I'm sorry this comment is coming so late. I read your poem earlier. Happy Holidays, Elisabeth.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments! Comment moderation is active. Your comments will be posted after they have been reviewed. Thank you for your patience!

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Friday: Story Cubes Poems "Plot Problems"

 Welcome to Poetry Friday! Our host this week is Mary Lee. She's shared a wonderful poem of her own, one by Sandra Cisneros, a video and more in her post. You can find all that poetic goodness and links to the other participating poets over here on her blog. My Story Cubes poetry prompt this week had me a little stumped at first. In addition to trying to write fast, I'm also challenging myself to keep the order of the dice in my poem. So if the cauldron comes first, I'm trying to make it first thing I mention. Either I like multi-dimensional chess, or I like making things challenging for myself. Or maybe both! Here are this week's prompts: And here is my poem. Plot Problems First I drew a cauldron Bubbling full of poisoned brew. Then I drew a hungry hero Now I don’t know what to do. hmmm . . . .  I know how to fix this! Draw one big foot, then two. Run fast, my big foot hero! Go find some barbecue. © 2025, Elisabeth Norton, all rights reserved What about you? Have you
19 comments
Read more

Poetry Friday: Welcome to the Party!

There is so much happening in our world right now, it can be hard to take it all in. In these times, more than ever, I am grateful for poetry.  Sometimes I write it.  Sometimes I have no words of my own, so I read and reflect on the poetic words of others.  Either way, poetry helps me process my thoughts and feelings about the world and my experiences in it. My poetic offering today is a poem I wrote earlier this spring, on a rare day when my husband had to go to the office for an in-person meeting and I took our usual lunchtime walk alone.  I am a creature of habit, but on that day I challenged myself to break routine and change direction, and this poem was the result. Today I go against the grain, turn left  Instead of right, Let the path take me away from home Instead of towards it. Today I go against the grain, go up the slope I usually walk down. Climbing uses different muscles Than descent. Today I go with the grain, walk downstream Instead of up, Walk with the flow, Instead of a
23 comments
Read more

Poetry Friday: Neurodiversity Poems

In our family, we do a lot of thinking about thinking, because we are all neurodiverse (autism and ADHD). We're often engaged in discussions about how our neurodiversity influences the way we experience the world. From how we socialize to how we organize ourselves to complete tasks, our neurodiversity is a factor in everything we do and every experience we have. This week I decided to try to use poetry to express the experience of having ADHD. Although ADHD, like autism, can be characterized by the ability to hyperfocus on a topic or task for an extended period of time, the characteristic that is most commonly associated with ADHD is difficulty in sustaining attention .  In my attempt to express this latter aspect of the ADHD experience I ended up with two poems, both of which use the same metaphor. One is an almost-haiku (haiku-esque?) that's missing a syllable on the middle line, one is free verse. I'd love to know if you have a preference - let me know in the comments!
25 comments
Read more