e are enjoying a few days of beautiful sunrises and mostly clear skies before a promised storm arrives. I saw this poem a few weeks back and tucked it away, just knowing... snow's a comin'.I have a recent affection (the past decade, so... sort of recent) for poems that deal with the natural world... weather, animals, landscape, beauty. Being exposed to them in college, I remember thinking, "Meh, let's write about feelings." Ah well. Getting on up in years is a good thing...
The White
These are the moments
before snow, whole weeks before.
The rehearsals of milky November,
cloud constructions
when a warm day
lowers a drift of light
through the leafless angles
of the trees lining the streets.
Green is gone,
gold is gone.
The blue sky is
the clairvoyance of snow.
There is night
and a moon
but these facts
force the hand of the season:
from that black sky
the real and cold white
will begin to emerge.
-Patricia Hampl
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You know what I remember the most? Snowing, at night. How bright the world was when it snowed at night. It was the most beautiful, pure bright. It held such PROMISE. Thank you for helping me to remember. I hope the storm is just enough to be novel and grogeous and still but not enough to inconvenience you!
ReplyDeleteOh, Sher, this poem is perfect. I was looking at the sky tonight after work in the waning sunshine and thinking about the end of autumn and the winter snow soon to come, feeling like I could almost see it, even though it's not yet in the 10-day forecast. Now those thoughts have glorious words and images attached. Thank you thank you!
ReplyDeleteBlind Commissioner, speak to me. Who are you? If you call me Sher you must know me... right? (Email me if you don't want to reveal here...)
ReplyDeleteP.S. Glad you liked the poem. It WAS today here.
Chel, I always love snow, especially the first snow when it's all quiet and soft... You'll need to actually leave FL to get a little of that action... So far our storm is just wind. And a lot of it. Ugh.