Wintertime in Oregon

By Bruce Mock
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Julie Kelly

I like the Wintertime in Oregon

her gopher holes
and short, green wheat,
and seagulls in the breeze;

her frosty grass
her frosted glass

and chipping ice from windo’ panes
and haze.

and skiers tracks
thru’ mountain trails
and rabbit tracks
on downy dales
and hail

and rain

and

crashing tides that
suck the sand
and
wear the cliffs
and
rocks that stand
and
waves that
break the jetties down

and
spray that streaks
the crests that foam,
driving wetness
through my bones.

and quiet nights
of crystal calm
that guard the gates
of Winter’s Home.

Bruce Mock is a lifetime Oregonian and lives in Southeast Portland. He is the founder of Seven Years of Plenty, a charity dedicated to feeding the hungry and rooting out the causes of poverty. He writes poetry about what he loves.