Winter has come to stay
Likely till the end of May,
Shedding pure snow in all its glory,
Beware! N’er on the road should you hurry!
Watch the snow on the grass and building tops
Curl like the clouds on skies atop,
Shaping the weather on the sands of time,
Awaiting the return of Christmas, carol, and chime.
And down the lonely trail I see a Hawkeye walk,
Fully draped in jacket and scarf.
Mockingly, a lonely tree seems to swear,
“Winter is no scare, look, I’m totally bare.”
Far away, I see a friend skid and fall,
Fall, he exclaims, is the best season after all!
Oh! What about the waiting spring,
With music, color, and butterfly wing!
As I muse this verse on my way,
To school ten summer minutes away,
This isn’t your day, I to myself say,
Your rhyme is heading the “Lonngren” way!
Iowa City, 1983.
Lonngren was one of my professors at the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Iowa. He wrote poems with total focus on rhyme.