fits and starts

falling snow swept
and swayed,
at fading games of
connect the dots
beyond the window frame
taking turns dashing in
and darting out
decoding winter’s
secret march
in summersaults
of fits and starts

- Mori McCrae

January

aluminum pigment & charcoal on panel

24x24in, copyright Jan Yates 2015

available

Winter Sleep

It's not the case, though some might wish it so
Who from a window watch the blizzard blow
 White riot through their branches vague and stark,
That they keep snug beneath their pelted bark.
They take affliction in until it jells
To crystal ice between their frozen cells,
 And each of them is inwardly a vault
Of jewels rigorous and free of fault,
 Unglimpsed until in May it gently bears
A sudden crop of green-pronged solitaires.

-Richard Wilbur, Orchard Trees, January 
 

 January, (winter sleep) oil on canvas, 40x48in, diptych

copyright Jan Yates 2014, available

January, milkweed, encaustic

January-detail January-detail

on found panel 50x7in copyright Jan Yates 2014  available January-detail