I like to write, most of the time. I’ve been writing since I was 12, mostly journaling, then papers, then work articles, papers, and blogs, and then blogging on my own. I always like to challenge myself and I keep a little pile of papers in the back of my journal as prompts when I want to do something different or write about a topic that I find interesting.

Last weekend I had a couple of hours to kill in the airport while waiting for a flight. I took out those prompts and wrote about two things – poetry and the nicest thing someone ever said to me (more on that one later). The poetry prompt urged me to write a poem about a time I was up in the middle of the night – what was it like, how did I feel, etc. When I originally read the prompt a scene came to mind immediately of a time I was walking home from the Metro station in DC at 1 am in the snow.

The poem below kind of spilled out all at once. I tweaked it a tiny bit to finalize it. Here goes… Enjoy.

Peace

In the still of the night
Surrounded by the dark
The moon shining quietly

On a solitary walk home
Through a park dotted with snow-covered trees

The walkway was empty
Except for me
Treading through the snow

The biting cold seeped in
Under my cape
Even though it was tucked up tight under my chin

The sound of the quiet footfalls
Reaching my ears

The beauty of the
Snow-covered branches
Glistening in the hazy moonlight

The scene was awe-inspiring
To the point where I just had to stop
And stare at the dark in wonder

To enjoy the beauty
To absorb the quiet
To hear the peace

Inside and out.