In winter there is only weather

wood wool but no real warmth

in the cold church deepening grayness

figures the aisles and windows

erasing names

the old piano stays untuned

the train disappears in the snow

in the morning the great gray cloud

across the East – it does no good

to seek green to beg red

Constance Hunting generously offered this poem for Uni-Verse a few weeks before her death on April 5. We honor her as one of Maine’s anchoring literary people of the last few decades. Her Puckerbrush Press has offered a central outlet for Maine writers, she has helped many young poets as a creative writing professor at UMaine, and she has provided us with a nourishing, irreplaceable literary energy.

Uni-Verse offers a poem grown from the experience of Maine bimonthly in Monday’s Discovering section.