A Cold Night

Bitterly cold the winter night;
Cruel and hard are the stars,
Pinpricks in the unending black,
Cold and perpetual scars.

Night winds creeping past the dark wood
Where the deepest shadows lie,
Dry leaves rattling beneath the feet
Of the night winds passing by.

Empty the arms of winter trees,
Barren of life and of leaf,
Cracking beneath the winter winds
And stripped of all but their grief.

Hard the winter and hard the night;
Freezing and bitter the wind.
Is there fire and faith enough
To last me until night’s end?