-Untitled-

Tumults of Snow

Forged amidst the

expanse

of soil and void,

brandish the heart.

An old friend,

well journeyed; now

returned

sets fire to the conscience.

What once used to freeze now burns,

Closing the lids of these urns.

-the bard 24/11/05

The poem compares the falling of snow to temptations to sin. The imagery of snow is contrasted throughout the poem by words usually associated with 'fiery' things, or 'hot' things. The key lines are the rhyming couplets, which are a comment about how sin use to freeze the soul, hardening the heart to God, as it hardens water to ice, but now (having been saved) it melts the soul, and reminds a person that they must cling to Christ because it is only through His righteousness that we are free. The whole idea about urns, is how we are dead to sin if we are in Christ, so that it has no power concerning salvation, only in our sanctification. The idea of 'brandish' is two-fold. Firstly, to brandish is to threaten with a weapon (ie. a sword, but in this case the snow is threatening ), and secondly, to brand, is to burn an image into something (ie. the heart). The idea then is that sin threatens to (and often does) callous our hearts to God, slowly changing our character so we are less like Christ. The fact that it is snow doing the branding is a piece of imagery that strikes a chord in my mind. This poem has brought forth quite a few more complexities then I first thought, thanks to the wonderful critique of the group.

Godspeed all,

-the bard