Introduction

For those of us living through a frigid winter, the season presents a natural challenge: survive months of 
darkness, dead flora, and inconvenient weather and try to forget how many days of it are still left. For 
many years, I dreaded most aspects of winter. In summer, I would feel alive and energetic and in the 
winter I would feel trapped indoors and uninspired in activity. And by uninspired I mean it especially in 
the Latin sense of deprived of that spiritus or divine breath.
 
The Christian holiday season would provide some distractive solace, in terms of lights, music, and festivity.
January and February were the hardest months, the leftovers in a society where the wonder of the season 
is mostly discarded along with the fir trees. 

I actually went on to study Winter Depression, and felt that one could find a way to overcome this 
syndrome of psychic and physical malaise through a change in mindset. At some point, I actually 
started to embrace the winter months as a time of intentionally turning inward. Indeed, for a has-been
sun-junkie, only through the embracing of winter was I able to stay sane through it. Turning inward can 
mean writing more, reading more, and thinking more about who you are and where you want to take 
yourself. It can be a time to shut yourself off from distraction and social trivialities. 

Though I still suffer through periods, winter is now mostly a time of introspection, self-reliance, and 
learning. In spring, I exhibit a more activist, connected, and vibrant hue, but much of my intellectual 
and spiritual fuel is derived from lessons learned in the winter months. Winter is when I determine the 
course for the new year, quite literally. Likewise with my poetry, my winter reading takes me out of my
mental comfort zone and helps me form a renewed intellectual basis for my creative implementation, 
which usually occurs in the warmer months. 

Do the seasons affect you and your poetry? Drop me a line if they do. For now, I wish you a pleasant
New Year and hope you enjoy this month's featured poetry. Selected pieces feature that introspective 
quality which is so vital to our journal's mission. 

All the best in life and writing,

Omar Azam