A Poem by Kimberly Phinney

There are winter words

I would use:

snow– plowed under;

troughs of icy encasements;

white banks

and heavy-laden slumber.

There are only winter words—

breaking off parts in frigid snaps

and draining greens to gray.

I know them all too well

and the silence

the barren land provokes.

Oh, I know the silence.

“It is never good,” I tell myself,

when it settles in,

when the last rusty leaf falls

from its tree to kiss

the icy roots of snow,

and the writing stops again.

Then comes the prolonged winter:

a December without end.

The frigid breath comes to rest

in my bones and whispers that

the sun should set in its slant,

and the cold is welcomed in.

Oh, I know the silence.

The shivering and the pleading–

man against the wind.

The shivering, the pleading,

then the silence

once again.

But then.

The glacial peaks begin to crack and avalanche

by some deep work of God.

There’s some small warmth at hand

underneath the ice,

and the break gives way to life.

Then spring words,

then summer words,

words flowing from the Stream.

The writing words–familiar friends—

all come back to me.

Kimberly Phinney is a mom, wife, and child of God. As a professional helper and artist, Kimberly is a professor of English, writer, and photographer. Her writing has been published in Ekstasis Magazine, Fathom, Truly Co, Calla Press, Radix Magazine, and many more. After surviving a severe form of Stage 4 Endometriosis and sepsis in 2021, she is now earning her doctorate in counseling to help the marginalized and suffering. She is the founder and editor of the faith community and literary journal, The Way Back to Ourselves, and was recently featured on ABC News and Good Morning America for her national teaching award and her compelling health story surrounding it. As a mental health and disabilities advocate, Kimberly hopes to use her life, story, and art to help others find their way back to wholeness and faith in a world that has forgotten how.Her debut poetry collection, “Of Wings & Dirt,” will be published in 2024.

Follow her on instagram @thewayback2ourselves

The Words

Echo

Like the Light