Do You Celebrate Snow?

Do you yearn for snow? I feel a sense of surprise and wonder with snowfall. I find it magical and transformative. Will flakes come down like feathers or hard little diamonds? Will they dance and twirl, or slant down with vengeance? Will I be able to smell snow in the air? 

A snow storm brings drama; it's a play with many actors. Will it be comedy? Romance? Tragedy? I may watch indoors or go out to feel the flakes on my face and catch some on a dark coat sleeve. Is it a heavy snow for making snowballs, or are the flakes feathery and light, dancing and twirling down?  Snow can be silent, shrouding the earth, or it can have a voice. It can whisper, or hiss. It can sting. 

I'm like a school child when a winter storm comes along. I want a good show. I delight at the beauty and despair at the slop, but any way you look at it, I want snow. For me, winter without snow is a letdown. 

This December we had warm weather and rain. Twice we had floods. Who needs this?  I want snow!

I no longer know this photo's origin, but what attitude! 

This week we finally had snow.  Below is my reaction by way of an elfchen, or elevensie, which I learned about from Margaret Simon. It's a short little thing, but I had fun with it. Eleven words in all, one word to begin and one to end. Then two, three, and four words per line. I didn't follow the rules exactly. Mine is more like a story than a description of the first word, but poetry is forgiving that way.

Waiting for Snow: An Elfchen

Today

Flakes flew

But too few

Tonight's snow whispers softly --

Pillows!

© Karen Eastlund

Alas, these photos are from earlier years. Our recent snow barely covered the grass, and then freezing rain. So I'm still dreaming of snow pillows, but don't despair, more snow is on the way!

Go ahead, give me some feedback!  I'd love to read your (polite and constructive) comments.

Poetry Friday is an online poetry party, and you are invited. Many thanks to Robyn Hood Black for hosting Poetry Friday today and for sharing everything lovely about tea, including some tea haiku.  Click HERE to find her post and links to other Poetry Friday poets. 

A Waking Song

It's early January and our Spiritual Journey group has the habit of choosing One Little Word (OLW) as a guide for the year. Choosing the word can be an arduous journey in itself. I notice that several of us have considered a particular word, decided to look further, but ended up coming back to the first word. I'm in that camp this year.

I've been waking from sleep with songs in my head. A dream may be vividly playing in color, random and surprising, but usually behind it is a song. It may be a song I've most recently sung in choir, but sometimes it's a song from childhood, a song I haven't heard in years. It doesn't matter where they come from or how much of the tune I remember, it's playing back there in my subconscious. How wonderful that we have this gift of song, given to so few creatures on earth. 

My OLW for 2024 will be SONG.  Songs express a multitude of emotions, rhythms, attitudes, voices, and volumes. I will follow them through the year. 

Once upon a time, when women were birds,

there was the simple understanding that

to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk

was to heal the world through joy.

The birds still remember

what we have forgotten,

that the world is meant to be

celebrated.

- Terry Tempest Williams

The above image and verse speak to me strongly. Certainly our world can use healing through joy. Certainly we need reminding. The poem also embraces a myth mentioned in To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey, in which native Alaskan women can change into birds. I highly recommend this book if you have not read it. 

My best wishes to all of you for 2024. May you find a song in your heart and a dance in your step. 

My thanks to Margaret Simon for supplying us with the beautiful new logo found at the top of this post, and for organizing this group and hosting us this month.