This month, a second Moon Prize, the sixty-seventh, goes to Jill Crainshaw's poem "Cedars in Snowy Places."

Cedars in Snowy Places

by Jill Crainshaw


Winter.
Solstice.
A gyroscopic dance
choreographed by Earth’s axial tilt.
Sun set still in winter
longest night
shortest day
Yule
midwinter
The land is vulnerable now,
sometimes covered by snowflakes
that have let go of something
somewhere
up there
and parachuted down to enchant
rooftops
and leaning-over farm fences
and autumn-tarnished grass.
And while tulip bulbs linger
in unseen silence
beneath the austere earth,
cedars in snowy places
fragrance the cold air
with emerald stillness
and praise the December moonlight.


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Jill Crainshaw is a poet, preacher, and teacher. Through her writing and teaching, she celebrates life’s seasons and seasonings. She and her two dogs, Bella and Penny, look for poems each day in their back yard. Sometimes Jill writes them down. Check out Jill’s most recent book, Thrive: How professionals 55 and over can get unstuck and renew their lives on her website, jillcrainshaw.com.