Deep Cold Rediscovered
January 20 - February 2
In this fortifying episode, Alexis and Kit weather the coldest days of the year by taking part in indoor pleasures, admiring the austere beauty of the winter landscape, and looking forward to spring. Hiro’s Corner takes a deeper look at the seasonal phrase “big cold.”
Poems Featured this Episode
Excerpt from “The Invitation” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Best and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair Day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
To the rough Year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.
The Brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth,
It kissed the forehead of the Earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streams be free,
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.
***
Winter's Beauty by William Henry Davies
Is it not fine to walk in spring,
When leaves are born, and hear birds sing?
And when they lose their singing powers,
In summer, watch the bees at flowers?
Is it not fine, when summer's past,
To have the leaves, no longer fast,
Biting my heel where'er I go,
Or dancing lightly on my toe?
Now winter's here and rivers freeze;
As I walk out I see the trees,
Wherein the pretty squirrels sleep,
All standing in the snow so deep:
And every twig, however small,
Is blossomed white and beautiful.
Then welcome, winter, with thy power
To make this tree a big white flower;
To make this tree a lovely sight,
With fifty brown arms draped in white,
While thousands of small fingers show
In soft white gloves of purest snow.
***
I'm January by Annette Wynne
I'm January bringing you
A year of days—all brand, brand new;
I step upon the frosty ground.
When chimes and sleighbells ring around;
You welcome me and children sing,
And joy comes into everything.
I bring you love and lots of cheer,
And work and friends for all the year.
***
The winter storm
Hide the bamboo grove
And quieted away.
– Basho
***
Winter solitude—
In a world of one color
The sound of wind.
— Basho
***
Winter Dawn by Amos Russell Wells
The trees are still; the bare cold branches lie
Against a waiting sky.
Light everywhere, but ghostly light that seems
The cast-off robe of dreams;
And everywhere a hush that seems to hark
At the doorway of the dark.
O fields, white-sheeted, desolate and dumb,—
If you knew what's to come!
***
Night wind--
the shrine's icicles
reflect the lights
– Issa
***
The Thawing Wind by Robert Frost
Come with rain, O loud Southwester!
Bring the singer, bring the nester;
Give the buried flower a dream;
Make the settled snowbank steam;
Find the brown beneath the white;
But whate’er you do tonight,
Bathe my window, make it flow,
Melt it as the ice will go;
Melt the glass and leave the sticks
Like a hermit’s crucifix;
Burst into my narrow stall;
Swing the picture on the wall;
Run the rattling pages o’er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out of door.
***
Excerpt from The House on Pooh Corner by A.A.Milne
The more it snows (Tiddely pom)
The more it goes (Tiddely pom)
The more it goes (Tiddely pom)
On snowing
And nobody knows (Tiddely pom)
How cold my toes (Tiddely pom)
How cold my toes (Tiddely pom)
Are growing
***
No fix place to live
in my traveler's mind -
this little kotatsu
– Basho
***
Moving to a new home
it really fits perfectly,
my old kotatsu . . .
– Buson
***
My true love
night after night --
my hot water bottle
— Kobayashi Issa
***
All I ask of the world,
a hot water bottle -
I'm cold!
— Naito Meisetsu
***
Clicking of needles -
the promise of warmth takes shape
in my cold hands
— Kit
***
Excerpt from The Winter’s Come, by John Clare
Tis Winter, and I love to read indoors,
When the Moon hangs her crescent up on high;
While on the window shutters the wind roars,
And storms like furies pass remorseless by.
How pleasant on a feather bed to lie,
Or, sitting by the fire, in fancy soar
With Dante or with Milton to regions high,
Or read fresh volumes we've not seen before,
Or o’er old Burton's Melancholy pore.
***
After the Winter by Claude McKay
Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning’s white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
We’ll turn our faces southward, love,
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire the shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.
And we will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
And ferns that never fade.
***
I Cannot Dance upon my Toes by Emily Dickinson
I cannot dance upon my Toes—
No Man instructed me—
But oftentimes, among my mind,
A Glee possesseth me,
That had I Ballet knowledge—
Would put itself abroad
In Pirouette to blanch a Troupe—
Or lay a Prima, mad,
And though I had no Gown of Gauze—
No Ringlet, to my Hair,
Nor hopped to Audiences—like Birds,
One Claw upon the Air,
Nor tossed my shape in Eider Balls,
Nor rolled on wheels of snow
Till I was out of sight, in sound,
The House encore me so—
Nor any know I know the Art
I mention—easy—Here—
Nor any Placard boast me—
It’s full as Opera—
***
The Poor Trees Stand and Shiver So, by Annette Wynne
The poor trees stand and shiver so,
Like ragged beggars in a row,
Without a cloak in frost and snow.
I think it's strange about the trees—
In summer when there's little breeze
They all dress up rich as you please.
No beggars then, but fine and grand
Like Princes of a mighty land
Across the world in rows they stand.
But now in cold they shiver so
Like ragged beggars in a row—
Without a cloak in wind and snow.
***
Firwood, by John Clare
The fir trees taper into twigs and wear
The rich blue green of summer all the year,
Softening the roughest tempest almost calm
And offering shelter ever still and warm
To the small path that towels underneath,
Where loudest winds—almost as summer's breath—
Scarce fan the weed that lingers green below
When others out of doors are lost in frost and snow.
And sweet the music trembles on the ear
As the wind suthers through each tiny spear,
Makeshifts for leaves; and yet, so rich they show,
Winter is almost summer where they grow.
***
A Dream of Summer, by John Greenleaf Whittier
Bland as the morning breath of June
The southwest breezes play;
And, through its haze, the winter noon
Seems warm as summer's day.
The snow-plumed Angel of the North
Has dropped his icy spear;
Again the mossy earth looks forth,
Again the streams gush clear.
The fox his hillside cell forsakes,
The muskrat leaves his nook,
The bluebird in the meadow brakes
Is singing with the brook.
"Bear up, O Mother Nature!" cry
Bird, breeze, and streamlet free;
"Our winter voices prophesy
Of summer days to thee!"
So, in those winters of the soul,
By bitter blasts and drear
O'erswept from Memory's frozen pole,
Will sunny days appear.
Reviving Hope and Faith, they show
The soul its living powers,
And how beneath the winter's snow
Lie germs of summer flowers!
Artwork & Artists Featured in This Podcast
Birds of Paradise by Laura Garcia Serventi
Laura Garcia Serventi is an Argentinian painter and illustrator based in Brooklyn. Her paintings, deeply inspired by her love of the Botanical world, are also related to the memories of her childhood spent in Buenos Aires.
Laura's work is always evolving and ranges from large scaled original paintings to affordable art prints, stationary products, editorial work, animation and collaborations with clients such as Pure Sunfarms, Buccellati, Patrizia Pepe, Anthropologie, LeSportSac, Cloudberries Puzzles, Bridgeman Images, Victionary and Charles and Keith, among others. Learn more about her and her artwork on her website.
ELECTRIC DIAMOND is one of the longest-lived electronic performance ensembles - 40 years plus and going strong. It is a reimagining of the classical music chamber ensemble. The group first performed in 1979 playing concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, the Guggenheim Museum and other venues of the New York 1970s new music scene. In the mid 1980’s electronic wind player founder Stuart Diamond joined forces with the eclectic, electric keyboard innovator Don Slepian, whose credits and talents are legendary – from artist-engineer-in-residence at Bell Laboratories to the original ambient sound painter for “Music from the Hearts of Space.” Learn more on their website.
What Season Comes After Deep Cold?
Welcome spring with our 2020 episode: “The Beginning of Spring”
Seasonal Recipes
Music Featured This Episode
Ketsa - Gentle Wave, A Box of Delights, Sorrow of the Sun, Soul Zone, Scattered, Silent Dreams, Forest Friends
Faurepiece
Serge Quadrado - The River Song
Crowander - Overture
Lobo Loco - Mountain Bells
Visual Examples of Seasonal Words
