WHITE SILENCE

A PLACE FOR SOLACE

My world is growing smaller and smaller
as a merciless fog bears down on the meadow
gathering family, friends, neighbors
pulling them into a dense shroud of greyness.
Here I stand in this open space of fields
seeing only a blur of the horizon
sometimes losing my footing
as I try to find new paths of beauty.
Unwavering in this quest
I’ll wait for evening to bring a reprieve
and with it the slightest trace of those names
stenciled within the stars.

INTERLUDE

For a time there was only silence and numbness
in a frozen aloneness
poems that were just beginning started floating away on top of the river
as if they were white caps that didn’t belong there
I had lost my voice.
Not comfortable in this holding pattern
I try to reorder my life
gathering up seeds planted months ago that later sprouted stems
enough for me to believe that those stems
will sprout leaves and as they unfold
a glimpse of an opening
the right angle of light
A transparent sky.

WHITE SILENCE

Outside the ground covered in snow
How I want to hold on to this soft white blanket
That stretches like a polar landscape
A promising protection to a cacophonous world.
Let those feathered layers of flakes
Pillow themselves in open trenches
Let the poplars bend down and with their empty branches
Brushstroke a new calligraphy that will envelop the earth
One white moment leaning into another.
Standing on the perimeter of such beauty
I don’t want to leave the peacefulness of this white silence
I think of this scene as an hourglass I wish all the world could hold.

Helen Leslie Sokolsky’s poems have appeared in a number of publications including Confrontation, The California Poetry Quarterly, Poet Lore, The Poetry Review (PSA), Tinderbox and The Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. Recent publications include The Ekphrastic Review, Seven Circle Press, Poetry Quarterly, POEM, The Aurorean and Adelaide Literary Magazine. In December 2021, she was featured in THE POET: Poetry Profiles. Finishing Line Press published her chapbook of poems Two Sides of a Ticket in 2014 and she is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize. Helen won 3rd place for her poem “THE COAT” in the 2012 Tom Howard/John Reid Winning Writer’s Contest and received a letter of recognition from the Executive Director of New York Cares for that poem. She was a finalist in the 2016 Atlanta Review‘s International Poetry Competition. A retired New York City special education teacher, Helen lives with her husband in upper Manhattan near Fort Tryon Park. Her two daughters and grandson live in Delaware, Ohio.