Winter Trees

 

Winter Trees by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details

of  the attiring

and the disattiring are completed!

A liquid moon 

moves gently among

the long branches.

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.

I do not remember when I read my first William Carlos Williams' poem nor which one it was. I would say it was when I was in my late teens or early twenties. The thing that struck me the most was not the poem but the poet's name. The first and last names the same and very English but the middle name sounding like a Spanish one? That's what made an impression.

In those days it wasn't as easy to look things up. Information was not a click away at our fingertips as it is now. If I read a poem and had any thoughts about the author, they went only so far as to think: "William Carlos Williams is a poet."

Now I know, after reading about him this morning, that he was a physician in Rutherford, N.J. His father was English and his mother was Puerto Rican of French, Spanish, Dutch and Jewish ancestry.

It's funny how I had him pegged as somewhat exotic just because of his middle name. 

The photo is of a super moon - a full moon pic I took January 2, 2018.