January January is a blue fissure in the black clay of deep winter. January is single-minded slow an eye opening after cataract surgery a brain after a blow to the head. January drives a team of strong sweaty horses hauls a heavy load holds summer�s sacred cargo safe under a well-secured tarp and pulls it through a narrow icy track inches up a long hill steady sure steady sure steady steady over the crest of the new year. January is the eye of the needle threaded with the gold of summer.

To the Beach You know you�ve finally arrived when Dad adroitly parks his car in a shady spot when the long closed-windowed grouchy ride is over when you un-squish your body from the full car�s choking hold step our of numbness and feel that first shock of soft grass on your feet as you head for the dressing room when you pull off your striped pedal pushers and top and stand feeling shivery and naked in your bright yellow bathing suit when you run free and alone through the woods delight in its mottled shadows and gnarled roots down down the path to the beach when you soak up the warmth of dry sand then dig your toes in cool wet sand find again the wave patterns that the lap and the lap and the lap of the waves have made on the edge of the lake in your absence when this water this lake and this sky are your family and for one whole day you feel like you can walk into forever Pierrette Requier Copyright � 2003

Pierrette Requier has enjoyed being a member of the Edmonton Stroll of Poets society for nine years, and a finalist in the last 12th Night Celebration in Old Strathcona on January 25, 2003 - winner of the Alberta Anthology Writing contest for the years 2001 and 2002 for both prose and poetry - in her creative writing workshops promotes beginning writers and well published writers - believes poetry feeds the soul of individuals and of a society, and is at its best when read aloud or performed.