Washington, DC Winter Shifting to Spring
Seasonal Climate & Weather Forecast Poetry Round-Up for Washington, DC
Hello Springlings,
I know it’s been a while - I hope you’re well. I stopped emailing-out every month’s weather poem round-ups since I’ve figured not everyone who follows here lives in the DC area or even near the DMV region (they're still posted-- Jan, Feb, and March). Here-- still, is a round-up of round-ups, like a shifting-seasonal send-off: a few of my favorite weather poems from the period I'll surface for you. Enjoy!
Currently is a weather service — and news hub — for the climate emergency.
A community of people sharing resources and delivering justice, hope, connection, safety, and resilience in a world in urgent need of systemic action.
Everyone in the world deserves a safe and stable climate. — Eric Holthaus
Shifting Seasons Across Washington, DC
From January —
Like Janus, eponym of January, two-headed Roman god, the Opener — reflect backward while looking forward and together we’ll go onward.
Monday, January, 10th, 2022
ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL MONDAY TO ACT ON CLIMATE SONNET
Monday’s sunny gestures ontowards beauty
Duty calls on winds to zephyr from ten
Ten miles per hour, gusting up-to moody
Twenty, northwest-sourced livid expressions
Impressionist sidewalks vivid in cold
Not only the bluster but also the
Just cold temperatures taking ahold
Continuing into Tuesday slowly
Painting pathways in meltish snowpack
Grey-black in street corners, turquoise in salt
Multi-chromatic District-wide palette
Planet beset across a ribbed sky vault.
Monday’s cold gestures a sunny climb-up:
A beautiful day to act on climate.
Wednesday, January 12th, 2022
Whichever way you take (DC’s new bus priority plan is here for your review and feedback), Wednesday meets you there in a shake. Follow the sunny pathway protected ahead, relatively warmer than the route Tuesday led. Ride the 10-15 mph wind in your sails across lost winter cycling trails. Take in the calm balm while it lasts, with frigid feels returning late week to DC in a cold blast. When you go towards the near-past-noon-risen moon, you’ll see glinting gibbous waxing daytime poetic like a ruin. Translating “Hottest Years” as “Costliest” into tiers with only more feared superlatives promised. But what if our collective courage was the response?
Friday, January 21st, 2022
Friday re-emphasizes a point made earlier
Another cold front reinforces what’s been here
Giving partly cloudy cold, 27°F high and 19°F low
Frigid below-freezing hold, into the weekend chills go
With North 5-15 mph winds, Friday’s still lit in LED-radiance
But the heart glows brightest in the fight for systemic changes
For Friday’s for re-imagining a better world we’ll make freer
Friday re-emphasizes a point made earlier.
From February —
February 8th, 2022
Tuesday’s sunny
30s to mid-40s
3-10mph breezy
Mostly clear by dark
Tuesday’s jamming.
February 14th, 2022
Something’s in the air as Monday’s skies blush
mingling sun, clouds, and freezing temperatures hush
in breath projecting icy glazings beneath your face
interlacing a bright light dance tracing across the day
like little gifts wrapped-up in how you better bundle-up
biking, commuting, just stepping outside– but inside, snuggle-up
with a good book, a date, or a dream in a cozy romantic way
as it’s up to you to spread the love with a forecast like Monday’s.
From here, your week promises a slight-warmth glow-up
progressively higher highs until late-week rain disrupts
giving more than just shivering skies above
with what’s in the air across DC: its self-love.
February 15th, 2022
As day breaks, you put yourself together.
A calm breeze lifts your coat over your arms.
The sun brightens sky and cheeks better
with Tuesday slightly warmer.
Feel a calm breeze kiss your eyelashes
and still-cold winter sunlight’s embrace
giving the gift of community climate action,
keep at-it on our greener way.
With solar shining on roofs and horizons,
and counties-off, wind turbines spinning away,
mixing with climate justice movements rising,
fall in love with the future Tuesday.
February 16th, 2022
LATE VALENTINE SONNET
I ask my love if it matters whether
The Weather Wednesday is getting warmer
Whether valentines is really ever
The kind of event one can be late for
Whether Wednesday skies are partly sunny
The chilly morning will warm-up quickly
Giving beautiful bikeways for DC
When he can hold my hand and walk with me
To the bus or park like it’s any day
With moderate winds that could gust from a
Developing frontal zone set Wednesday
Warmer than average as climate’s become
He answers me now with the sky scattered:
Honor love daily— everything matters.
From March —
Thursday, March 3rd 2022
🚴✅
Spring winds sling over Washington Thursday
Steady 5-15, gusting up to 20 miles per hour
But change is never breezy, even in phases
In waves of winds of changing power
🚌✅
Yet fluid rays reach through
Glowing bluish grayish skies
Spearing through sky Thursday
Sun extends into your eyes
🚇☑
I love the look you give me
Reflecting the world’s gaze
Like the courage you’re bringing
Together, with wind and sun we’ll change.
⛅🌬️
Friday, March 11th 2022
Friday fills you with a feeling
sunny horizon line 50s, highs near 60s°F
city light spreads a Spring shifting,
pollen popping, buds bopping, life teeming,
climate changing, season rearranging,
bikes riding, metro concerning, birds singing,
into a weekend with a different sound ringing
Saturday fills you with another feeling
strong frigid wind gusts yearning
with mixed rain showers and possible flurrying
all while fueled forms are churning
not only from fossil burning
but also from systems of extraction
so heed every call for landback action
Sunday fills you with yet another feeling
cold still, sunny though
the filling feeling of fighting
for home.
Wednesday, March 16th 2022
BATTLE OF THE BIRDSONG
🐦🌞
WEDNESDAY
Up above, it’s going down
in canopies, high over the chicanery
The Battle begins @ Dawn
and if need-be, we’ll go all day long
even with gorgeous weather for soaring
faster than folks on bikes exploring, especially
as we race to get the flock back together, mostly sunny
weather, whether or not here we come to rock and tweet
and chirp and squeak, trilling every pitch strong and sweet
throwing birdsong down from groups FEATURING:
The Song Sparrow Slackers, The Cardinal Heartbreakers
The Square Robins, The Unhappy As Horned Larks + MORE!
🚴✅🚌✅🚇✅
Don’t miss DC’s feathered festival of seasonal musicians,
just pause on your commute or step outside— and listen.
March 2022 Global Climate Strike Week of Haiku:
Monday, March 21st, 2022
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022
Thursday, March 24th, 2022
Friday, March 25th 2022
Finally, here’s a bonus poem just for you:
BONUS POEM
State Your Place
In a city Between two tidal rivers Between entire realities Between too many it seems Between seams on seams Stitching together communities Where they say Virginia is for lovers Maryland is for crabs DC is for the beloved Between two tidal rivers on land.
— Adam Powers