by Elisabeth Frischauf
As snow wanes, so my sorrow grows.
Treasured scarce, too soon gone
we’re forced to compress our games—
forget snow boy’s eyes (the hour wan)
snow girl ears—just shove in twigs!
As dark cold’s steady march intrudes
Quick to the hill! Slide by sled or ski
short hours joy intensifies (to be sure)
there are those who prefer a heater,
salt and curse the winsome drifts,
the fluffy glitz, a horrendous bother—
Hell, the car’s so clear and now another blitz?
Listen deep. Listen. Below tree roots sing:
This year we got water to last past spring.
Traditional and contemporary forms bring Elisabeth Frischauf’s voice to life in today’s world of technology, environmental concerns and interpersonal relationships.
Credits include the rhymed narration text “Let’s Talk about AIDS,” Sister Films, poems in Transformation of Memory,(in English) pp151-155 CzerninVerlag; BigCityLit; MerVox online; Literary Nest; MORIA; 10 poems in “Zwischenwelt” journal (in German translation); personal mention by Alec Hamilton of NPR, April 2021 National Poetry Month as well as a virtual reading at the Association for Popular Culture June, 2021.
A narrative memoir poem, They Clasp My Hand, will appear Spring 2022 as a bilingual, English/German book by the Theodor Kramer Verlag, Vienna, Austria
She lives on a small plot of land in Putnam County, where she also has her art studio.