Like a pear tree of the winter,
Retrace, between a bOwl of one color
And a decanter of another,
The crooked steps to the russet root,
While somewhere a free contralto,
Perched with two lives in an auburn tress,
Clothes the tree with populous song
-As
I am here in a winter scene
Reasoning and yet with delight,
My voice, beyond me, conjoining
With
he~
in the floating air;
And it is sweet to be
The bright cold sky
In winter time and any time,
And all the snow that lies between
And the partridge and the pear tree.
Irving Feldman
