It’s January: for those of us in the northern hemisphere, the nights are long and the days are bitterly cold. For many, now is a season of new beginnings; of setting goals and fighting to achieve them. But thriving in January can feel—sometimes—an awful lot like trying to rise from the depths of a pond whose surface has frozen over.
If you’re struggling to break through the hard shell of January into the new year, these twelve poems might be just the thing you need. Not optimistic but stubborn, they tell tales of ice and persistence in the gloomiest month of the year.
“Shelter From the Storm” – The Stupendium
No gold or silver, coal’s the only thing of worth to me
The only precious metal to our name would be the mercury
That fragile strip of burgundy that ever hurtles to the deep
Alerting us as Mother Nature’s taking every cursed degree…
Unlike the other poetry on this list, “Shelter From the Storm” is a song, created by The Stupendium—a musician known for their nerdy verses inspired by various video games. This particular song tackles Frostpunk, a city-building survival game which takes place in an alternate-19th century London beset by an intense volcanic winter. With its tight rhyme scheme and intricate lyrics, its chorus reminiscent of a sea shanty or work song, this song paints a picture of hardship and endurance, and is motivating to listen to even if you’ve never played the game.
“Undoing” – Khadijah Queen
In winter traffic, fog of midday
shoves toward our machines—snow eclipses
the mountainscapes
I drive toward, keeping time against
the urge to quit moving…
There is something gritty and indomitable woven through this poem by the winner of the 2021 William Carlos Williams Award for poetry. It evokes bleak environmental fears with precision as cutting as the cold—yet even as the ice closes in, the narrator is determined to keep going.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” – Robert Frost
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year…
This quiet, wistful poem from 1923 captures a brief moment of stillness in an unnamed traveller’s nighttime journey through the snow. What is his story? Why has he paused? There’s something eerie about this tranquil scene, and much opportunity to speculate.
“Tinnitus: January, thin rain becoming ice” – David Harsent
The spirit lamp in that house on the headland could easily fall and spill
and the fire burn all night…
This frosty seaside scene is rich with ominous detail which truly captures the uncertainty of January. Read this poem and you’ll find yourself hearing the ghostly whisper of waves upon the shore.
“January Thaw” – Rosalie Dunlap Hickler
There was rain in the night, a dull delivering rain
That washed the air of sparkle and hard blue gleam…
Penned in 1930, this poem illustrates the turn of the seasons: from bright, hard, sparkling ice there rises determined plant life and rushing water. And with it, laughter. If you’re in need of a reminder that this winter won’t last forever, look here and watch the first tendrils of spring as the cold recedes.
“Winter Flowers” – Stanley Moss
Once my friends and I went out in deep paradise snow
with Saint Bernards and Great Pyrenees
to find those lost in the blizzard that God made for Himself
because He prefers not seeing what happens on earth…
Building on the tentative optimism of the previous poem, this one follows its narrator through a snowy landscape. The narrator, on their journey, is inspired into a surreal and speculative back-and-forth with God.
“Blizzard” – Linda Pastan
The snow
has forgotten
how to stop
it falls
stuttering
at the glass…
Just as it seemed the seasons might be turning—here comes another relentless snowfall. With short, abrupt lines and beautiful simile, this poem narrates a cold snap in a way that will make you yearn for a blanket.
“January” – Nancy Schoenberger
Two-faced god, looking fore and aft:
Do you really belong to past
glories, boredoms, indignities?…
This poem from 1998 (almost the turn of the millennium!) marks the turn of December into a new year with a contemplation of Janus, the two-faced Roman god of duality for which January is named.
“Iron Burns Out” – R.B. Lemberg
Sól ek sá (I saw the sun)
when I was by a great grief stricken,
tilting out of this world; my tongue was as trees in winter
ok kólnat at fyrir utan (and around me, coldness)…
In evocative, fantastical language, this poem describes the feeling of having no time to rest despite a dire need for it…of putting other things—more important things—first. The verses dance between ice and snowmelt, exhaustion and resolve. If you’re already feeling the pressures of the new year, this might be a good poem to read.
“Cradling Fish” – Laura Ma
Winter storm: lightning flashes old ghosts on my blade. The
metal light as a carp piercing through the dragon’s gate.When shīfù still lived: she taught me that growth is a shattering
of murky fins raining into silver scales, thata promise means swimming against the current, flailing
up from the river to chance immortal wells…
This beautiful wuxia poem begins with ice and ends with summer. With vivid imagery, it illustrates the shifting of relationships that comes with the shifting of the seasons.
“January, 1795” – Mary Robinson
Pavement slipp’ry, people sneezing,
Lords in ermine, beggars freezing;
Titled gluttons dainties carving,
Genius in a garret starving…
The oldest poem on this list, this piece by Mary Robinson takes you back to a very specific January in 1795. Though over 200 years separate us from its creation, there is something deeply familiar about the scenes it brings to life in rhyme. A reminder that people have always been people, and January has always been January.
“Unlike objects, two stories can occupy the same space” – Charles Peek
Out along the last curve in the brick walk
the grass has begun to green,
with the freezing cold and coming snow
its certain fate…
This final poem encapsulates the themes of all the previous: of cycles, of ice and summer locked in a dance. There may be false starts, and the progress made in spring or summer may feel as though it’s been undone by the harshness of the cold seasons when they arrive. But this—Peek reminds us—is okay.
