A Place for Fire and Ice

The weather forecast for the week of February 7-14, 2021 at Merry Mount is chilling due to a visit from the “polar vortex”.

“The polar vortex, composed of lofty winds that circulate atop the globe each winter, largely stayed put in the Arctic last year. But in 2021 the winds have weakened, allowing frigid air to spill out of the polar regions. A blast of Arctic air is now destined for a large swath of the U.S. beginning by week's end. Many parts of the Midwest will see subzero temperatures, and the epicenter of the extreme weather event, Minnesota, will see lows of around -25 degrees Fahrenheit. Monday is predicted to be the coldest day.”

In preparation, I have gathered a few artistic expressions to share as I cuddle up in front of the fire.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Robert Frost

Winter Solstice

The days are short now;

The sunrise meets the dusk

Across a narrow field

Of darkened hours

And deepening night.

All is shadow

And ghosted trees:

Once dancing in warm air,

They stand bare against the winter wind.

And circling every branch,

As cold as fire,

Lays a crystal glove:

A mirror for the blood-red holly

And the frozen silver of the stars.

Robert Bode

My love is like to ice, and I to fire: How comes it then that her cold so great Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, But harder grows the more I her entreat? Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold, But that I burn much more in boiling sweat, And feel my flames augmented manifold? What more miraculous thing may be told, That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice, And ice, which it congeal's with senseless cold, Should kindle fire by wonderful device? Such is the power of love in gentle mind, That it can alter all the course of kind.

Edmund Spenser

The Cold Heaven

Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice, And thereupon imagination and heart were driven So wild that every casual thought of that and this Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago; And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason, Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro, Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken, Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken By the injustice of the skies for punishment?

William Butler Yeats

Contentment

The fire is hot. Outside it’s not. Flaming ice is best. My soul is at rest.

CPW

CPW