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[Poetry] Two Poems by Ruth Ticktin

A Winter Dare


Degrees below freezing I’m snowbound by

dark stark trees dressed as white ermine


Inside the little cluttered home 

windows display drifting snowbanks 

beckoning like loving arms 


snow piles edged by silvery blue glisten 

delicate patterns of ornate pale sheen


Tiny snowbirds snuggle against

the southern wall of the front porch chirping

in the winter chill


Bright with morning sun crystalline snowflakes twirl 

through turbulent winds like playful children teasing


Golden rays shimmer across 

snow-laden earth lighting up the trees 

A wink of silence ‘til shaking birds sing out a plea


Snowy outdoors Step boldly 

A brilliant world Awaits you



a.m. on the Bay a pantoum


Sun rises on the bay A boat motors a-sea slowly

Calm currents small waves Don’t alert the crabs

Grandpa taught crabber the craft 

Swiftly dipnet scoops into shallow waters and nabs


Stable currents mild waves Don’t spook the crabs

When claws grab fish-bones crabs are lifted to golden light

Scooped by a net in the shallow bay They’ve lost their grubs

despite bright sun the crabs fight with all their might


Just as claws grab fish-food crabs are raised to sun light

Smoothly pulled in by a net Outa’ the bay into a boat

With so much brightness and might crabs have lost the fight

nabbed from the bay by crafty crabber in a motorboat




Ruth Ticktin coordinated international programs and taught English in the DC/Maryland region since 1977. Writing and always sharing stories, she is author of Was Am Going, Recollections Poetry/Flash (NewBayBooks 2022;) co-editor: Psalms (PoeticaPublishing 2020;) co-author: What's Ahead? (ProLinguaLearning 2013;) contributor: MarylandBards, GatheringPoetry (LocalGemPress 2023.) ZvonaiNari; Straylight Featured Author 10/2023. For more information please go to https://rticktindc.wixsite.com/ruth



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