Tag: end of year

First Snow, Final Page

Poetry by Amber Lethe

The year ends quietly –
a book settling into its spine.
Snow falls in soft punctuation marks,
periods on windowsills, commas on evergreens,
ellipses hanging in the hush of afternoon.

Inside, the kettle clicks a familiar prayer,
a small applause for warmth still here.
We hold our hands to the steam and remember:
the burns, the blessings, the almosts,
the moments we meant to speak but didn’t.

Outside, the world turns blank, crystalline, kind –
as if offering us a clean margin,
urging try again, try softer, try braver.
We turn the page with mittened fingers,
ink still drying on our names.


Amber Lethe is an emerging writer whose work blends intimacy, atmosphere, and quiet surrealism. She writes about memory, seasons, and the small rituals that shape us. When not writing, she plays Vivaldi on piano, knits imperfect scarves, and reads classic books with her pug, Sir Merlin, snoring at her feet.

Two Winter Haiku

Poetry by M.L. Lyons

Pine trees of winter
Burlap warms the cedars
Deer licks green needles.

Year end ritual
Snow geese cry fleeing winter
Beeswax candles glow


M. L. Lyons is a poet, writer, editor and co-editor of the anthology, “Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workplace.” Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart and her poetry collection, “Songs from the Multiverse” is forthcoming in 2025 from Finishing Line Press.

First of December

Poetry by Suzy Harris

Every wet leaf underfoot
gives a little sigh. Sounds like
squish squish. And every
almost bare branch bends down
in supplication. December
begins quietly, not yet wanting
to slam the door on the old year.

We have four more weeks
to finish the unfinished,
care for the untended,
seek the sublime. Each day
unfolds like the first paragraph
of a new story. We don’t know
how it ends.


Suzy Harris lives in Portland, Oregon. Her poems have appeared in Clackamas Literary Review, Willawaw Journal, and Wild Greens, among other journals and anthologies. Her chapbook Listening in the Dark, about hearing loss and learning to hear again with cochlear implants, was published by The Poetry Box in February 2023.

© 2025 The Bluebird Word

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑