by G. E. Schwartz

 Glorious, rigorous, sun-flooded snow-iced morning,
Scoured by the north wind, marble hard to today’s
   Human designs, we do not dare defy You but still
Our defiance is summoned up. We are quite human
   Creatures, resolute. We’ll go our this day’s varied way,
Plunge into, become party to the frieze of this iron
   And brilliant, uncompromising artwork, its etched foil.

G. E. Schwartz is the author of several collections of poetry, including Only Others Are (Legible Press), World (Furniture Press), Thinking In Tongues (Hanks loose Gravel Press), Murmurations (Foothills Publishing), and The Very Light We Reach For (Legible Press), and he lives and writes from Upstate, New York, in the United States.