First Rose of Winter

By Steve Wachtel

This book contains poetry penned from pain and pleasure, from despair and desire, growing and blooming despite the vicissitudes of the changing climates of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543421460

Steve Wachtel

Steve Wachtel has been writing since 1976. He has extensive experience volunteering with children both as big brother and teaching them to love reading. When not writing children's books he enjoys writing poetry.

Book preview

AFTER THE STORM

I vote sticker kissing the subway platform-

Discarded detritus of the Day of Decision.

Treated now with casual derision

since the outcome brought scorn.

Democracy is such a strange thing,

like rich looking fancy cakes

that the eye enjoys but that makes

the tongue feel like withering.

Churchill said it was the worst,

except for all the others,

but this time if I had my druthers

I would dictate my choice first.

I guess I will survive or pretend,

The sun still rises in the East,

and they say you can tame any beast,

and that may trump everything in the end.

WHAT’S MY LINE?

Can you hear the flowers’ scent? You asked,

No, but I can smell the noise of the cars-

A little confusion on the High Line;

So many people make it hard to define

what your senses divine.

You are overwhelmed with the wonder

of nature reclaiming from men of steel

what had been a city desert, arid

and hostile to seeds that hid

beneath the rails where trains slid

Over in steel intercourse, sparks

boiling the air, slaying any sprouts

that dared emerge. No greens land,

and then no man’s land, unplanned

for and abandoned, no longer grand…

Until nature returned and inspired men

with her visions, waking them to glories

always there but now first seen…

A park, a riot of all things