by Julia Buckley
Well, everyone from the Midwest to the Northeast has felt the brunt of this latest snowstorm, and naturally, we all want to talk about the weather! But I've been enjoying literature, too, and pulling out some of my favorite poets' words about snow and winter. I set a mystery in winter once, and there is a special poetry about that season. For example:NIGHT
Stars over snow,
and in the west a planet
Swinging below a star--
Look for a lovely thing and you will find it,
It is not far--
It never will be far.
That is one of my ALL TIME favorites by Sara Teasdale. Now compare it to Lilian Moore's "Winter Dark."
Winter dark comes early
mixing afternoon
and night.
Soon
there's a comma of a moon,
and each street light
along the
way
puts its period
to the end of the day.
Now
a neon sign
punctuates the
dark with a bright blinking
breathless
exclamation mark!
And finally, a Japanese poem, unattributed, but printed in Winter Poems by Barbara Rogasky:MOON
The moon hangs up at night;
Her beams are cold and bright;
Seeing her shadow low
The water's frozen now.
Enjoy the beautiful words and the beautiful frozen weather! It's a great time for all of us to stay in and do a bit of writing. :)