A literary and visual arts magazine concerned with Michigan’s natural environments and experiences outdoors.
Pentwater, Winter
Karen Paul Holmes
In hibernation, the town didn’t stir when we arrived. The dune frozen lakes mostly ice.
With Everest fortitude we climbed, almost craving the view of snow-cloaked pines and stillness below.
Judging from the sky, though, it could’ve been summer. With something like regret, we imagined ice melting into water snow into sand and solitude into a bustling desire for sun.
Karen Paul Holmes won the 2023 Lascaux Poetry Prize and received a Special Mention in The Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her books are: No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich), and poetry credits include The Writer’s Almanac, The Slowdown, Verse Daily, Diode, Glass, and Plume. Find her work on her website, www.karenpaulholmes.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/karenholmespoetry, and on Instagram @sharing_poems.