..........I arrived home around two o'clock in the afternoon on Wednesday after driving all night the previous night from just west of Toledo, Ohio. When I got home, I thought the ice storm that had been chasing me for a week had followed me to the deep South. Fortunately, all we got was a very cold rain here at home.
.......... I spent a lot of time sitting at loading docks last week, and as a way of relieving my frustration, I wrote quite a bit of poetry. One poem, entitled, Elk in Winter, was inspired by a memory of an elk I saw last winter, ironically atop Elk Mountain, out in Wyoming. He appeared out of the driving snow like a ghost in the night. I was captivated by the sight of this majestic animal nearly the size of a horse, with a rack stretching halfway down the length of his back. He was covered with a thick coating of ice and snow, and steam poured from his nostrils as he breathed. I doubt if I have ever witnessed a more beautiful sight. This elk taught me that even in a twenty below zero blizzard, beauty can be found in God's creation.
.........P.S.-My poetry book, Word Portraits, is now available through all of the online bookstores, as well as at the publisher's webstite, www.publishamerica.com.

ELK IN WINTER

The bull elk wonders
From the wind-driven snow,
Ice covers a grizzled back,
Steam billows from nostrils flared,
Antlers reach four feet breadth,
Haloing his majesty,
Standing proud upon a treeless knoll,
Surveying his kingdom,
The frozen plain.