I love living in New England. I love the changing seasons. Autumn—when the leaves turn color—is my favorite. The cool, crisp air invigorates me. I also enjoy winter—especially when snow falls softly and covers the roofs, the cars, the trees, the yards with white. The world seems to quiet. Everything looks so different, so beautiful.I just returned from the White Mountains of New Hampshire yesterday. When we awoke Thursday morning, it was 24 degrees below zero! I can’t say that I love weather that cold—but we were warm and cozy inside.
Here is the poem I selected for the first Poetry Friday of 2008:
RELEARNING WINTER
by Mark Svenvold
Hello Winter, hello flanneled
blanket of clouds, clouds
fueled by more clouds, hello again.
Hello afternoons,
Hello afternoons,
off to the west, that silver
of sunset, rust-colored
and gone too soon.
And night (I admit to a short memory)
you climb back in with chilly fingers
And night (I admit to a short memory)
you climb back in with chilly fingers
and clocks, and there is no refusal:
ice cracks the water main, the garden hose
stiffens, the bladed leaves of the rhododendron
shine in the fog of a huge moon.
Click here to read the rest of the poem.
At Wild Rose Reader, I have a link to a list poem that will appear in Falling Down the Page, an anthology edited by Georgia Heard. The book will be published by Roaring Brook Press and will be released in March.
Franki and Mary Lee have the Poetry Friday Roundup at A Year of Reading.
Click here to read the rest of the poem.
At Wild Rose Reader, I have a link to a list poem that will appear in Falling Down the Page, an anthology edited by Georgia Heard. The book will be published by Roaring Brook Press and will be released in March.
Franki and Mary Lee have the Poetry Friday Roundup at A Year of Reading.
6 comments:
Unfortunately, I think by the end of this week, we will be relearning spring (temperature-wise)!
24 degrees below zero????
I would need psychiatric intervention to unlearn that. Oi...
Wow! First time reading this poem -- LOVE it!
My in-laws live in NH (WAY too cold for me).
Thanks for the upside down cake of clouds, et al.
Mary Lee, we had an unusually mild autumn in Massachusetts--then near record snowfall in December.
Liz, it was THAT cold yesterday--early in the morning in the mountains of Franconia Notch. We decided to wait until it warmed up to about 4 degrees above zero before we loaded the car and headed for home. Thank goodness we have seat warmers in the car!
Jama, I like winter--but not when it's frigid and we have three feet of heavy snow to shovel.
Fall is my favorite, too, though I love all the seasons here in Minnesota (except summer is too hot).
This is a lovely poem: the night and rain stanzas...amazing.
Elaine, do you use poems you already know for Poetry Friday? Or do you go browsing and choose a new one? You share such beautiful ones, just wondering about your process...
Laura,
I do both. There are lots of poems I love--but I just can't find them on the poetry sites I visit. I also browse the sites from time to time reading poems and looking for some to post on Poetry Fridays. Sometimes I'll jot down several URLs in my notebook. I really wish there were more children's poems available.
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