Richmond got dusted with another good amount of snow this weekend. There's at least a foot, schools are closed (not the university, however), and with low temperatures hanging around, it won't be going away any time soon. So, let's write about snow.
Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.
Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.
A revision of an older poem, but it's all I have time for this week.
ReplyDeleteSNOW PLOWS
By Steven Withrow
Frigid night,
first light snow
frosts blacktop.
Plows shiver to life
after silence,
sleep.
Truck engines
cough quietly,
frothy exhalations.
All move out,
slow, coordinated
convoy.
Snow falls.
Blades scrape
cold roads clean.
Tired
plowmen
stop.
Consider
letting it mount,
letting it grow.
New light shows
new snow
flakes.
Truck
engines
rumble.
Last Night's Snow
ReplyDeleteThe white eraser
took out black lines
of roads, dark
roof rectangles,
and scribbled branches.
It rubbed away
colored-pencil cars,
gray streaks of fence,
and etched hedges.
But it can't erase
my new red boots,
my yellow scarf,
or my blue coat
as I tromp along,
rewriting.
--Kate Coombs, 2010
Living in Buffalo, NY, I write many snow poems. Here is one from the past...
ReplyDeleteSnowflake
Born in a cloud.
Lived in sky.
Died on my mitten.
Why?
-Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
I've put my snow poem up at The Drift Record
ReplyDeletefirst snow...
ReplyDeletethe puppy's nostrils
full of it
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Rochester and taught and went to grad school in Buffalo. There is much I miss about it, but definitely not the snow!
Oh my goodness! We have some things in common - my husband grew up in Victor. Did you go to UB? I'm presently at UB for my library science degree. Where did you teach? I used to teach fifth grade in Sweet Home. If ever you miss snow, I'll be happy to mail you an insulated envelope full of it. We live down in Holland, so it's white for many months in our parts.
ReplyDeleteQuiet
ReplyDeleteis the sound
of snow.
Hush.
Can you hear it?
--Barbara J. Turner
Snowflake Designer
ReplyDeleteI’m quick.
I’m careful.
I work when I wake.
I’m cool.
I’m quiet.
I make no mistake.
Each winter
I sketch
I measure
I bake
flake after
flake after
flake after
flake.
(If I find a double
I take it and break it.)
- Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
Ode to a California Winter
ReplyDeleteBy Nicole Marie Schreiber
I know it’s why people move here--
Sunny.
Mild winters.
72 degrees.
But just once, I’d love to see snow
sugaring those orange poppies,
if only for a day.
Just once
instead of car chases
and Amber alerts
and traffic congestion
and illegal immigrants
all over the news,
how about a freak snowfall
blanketing the Hollywood sign,
thick as meringue
and just as sweet?
Just once
let’s keep everyone indoors
and off the freeways,
snuggling next to their gas fireplaces,
drinking their Coffee Bean lattes,
and taking off their sunglasses,
if only for a day.
Just once.
Hi Tricia ~ I love writing about snow, but especially liked Kate's take on it this week.
ReplyDeleteDRIZZLING SNOW
A drizzle of snow
laces the field
where stubbles
of corn stalks
bear witness
to turkey tracks
sprinkled across
its wintry breast.
© 2010 Carol Weis
Southern Snow
ReplyDeleteTrees steeled themselves
against the coming cold.
Sparrows and squirrels snuggled
deep in strawed nests.
Children caught the first flakes
on trembling tongues, scraped
white powder from the dry grass,
and threw wet balls at friends
until the unfamiliar cold
hurried them inside
in search of hot chocolate
and warm hands.
The sudden storm dropped
an icy blanket
over the city’s shoulders,
waited for its arteries to slow,
and sealed the frozen life
in a box of snow.
Still
ReplyDeleteso still
all muffled
buried
overwhelmed
All motionless
suspended
breathless
under the
veiled
solstice moon.
The years
fall away
on either
side, and for a moment,
all is
still.
copyright Feb.3, 2010
Much snow?
ReplyDeleteNo go.
Jane Yolen
PS I have done two books of poetry about snow and ice: SNOW, SNOW and ONCE UPON ICE., both from Boyds Mills WordSong imprint.
Tricia,
ReplyDeleteHere's a bunch of original snow poems that I posted at Wild Rose Reader in the past month. Choose any/all that you'd like for the Poetry Stretch Results.
Snowflakes falling like fairy dust...
I turn my face to the sky,
Cold white kisses
Melting on my cheeks
(First draft)
Wrapped
In a robe of white
Numbed with cold
The weary
Earth
Rests
SNOW HAIKU
After the blizzard
snowmen are sprouting up
like winter wildflowers
Snowflakes fluttering
from a wintry sky…a flock
of white butterflies
With his frosty feet
little mouse prints a message
in the snow: Hello!
Like stars shaken from
The sky, snowflakes whirling down
In white galaxies
A snowman shadow
paints himself in blue upon
a cold white canvas
(From the book "Robert’s Snowflakes")
TWO QUATRAINS
Snow dropped by…
and here am I
catching flakes
of falling sky!
While I slumbered
Through the night
Winter turned
My whole world white.
MORE SNOW POEMS
Winter Ballet
It’s white snow,
Bright snow,
Soft-as-feathers light snow…
Tiny ballerinas there
Pirouetting through the air
With their shiny crystal shoes
In their winter dance debuts.
Pond in Winter
The meadow pond lies silent, still…
Sealed in tight by winter’s chill.
A downy quilt of fallen snow
Hides a cold, dark world below.
I wonder all the winter through:
“What do fish and turtles do?”
Winter White
(Inspired by Joyce Sidman's Red Sings from Treetops.)
Winter White
whirls in the wind,
waltzes down from clouds,
alights with feathered feet.
It pillows the ground,
muffling the sound of footsteps
on the walk.
Winter White
wraps the rhododendron
in a fluffy shawl,
lays a feathered quilt
over the frozen pond.
Winter White
etches windowpanes with frosty fingertips.
It whispers through icy lips,
sounds like a ghost
shivering in cold blue shadows.
You just keep getting the snow. Like the NW last year. Here's mine: http://maclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/poetry-friday-responding-to-prompts/
ReplyDeleteSnow True
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snow Shovel
by Liz Korba (expecting almost two feet of snow within the next 24 hours...)