Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Frosty Lockdown’.

Frosty Lockdown

The frost has not let go all day,

holding nature in cold lockdown.

Some sunlight for a time dispelled the gloom,

but in the end it did not make much difference.

The puddles beneath our feet stayed locked in ice, 

their glassy broken shards neither mending  nor melting.

At the quarry, the cross itself is frozen,

simply enduring, like the great rock behind.

The one and only oak tree on the path

stands quite exposed against the sky,

holding its ground until the storms have passed

every last leaf long since fallen.

Here on these frosted twigs the icy rime

covers but does not hide the tight-wrapped buds

that bide their time

for a spring that will surely follow.

Fr La Flynn

11 Jan 2021