“The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.”
~ Flannery O’Connor ~
Like this blue jay and everyone else in the northeast, I’ve stared at plenty of snow this winter. So how hard could it be to come up with a poem for Carol Varsalona’s “Winter Whisperings” gallery? I had jottings about winter everywhere, a false start to a poem here, a line that definitely should be abandoned there. Nothing was coming together.
Taking a cue from Kate Messner, I decided to try to capture the many different moods of snow into one “Sometimes” poem.
“Sometimes Snow…”
Sometimes snow
whispers itself into the world,
falling gently to the ground,
muffling every sound.
Sometimes snow
ROARS through the air,
the north wind sculpting it
into undulating drifts.
Sometimes snow
settles on tree branches,
offering itself to
thirsty blue jays.
Sometimes snow
is blue in the moon’s glow,
catching stark shadows,
crisp as X-rays.
But then, come March,
snow begins to
melt.
At first just a trickle,
then a torrent,
filling brooks and
streams and rivers,
washing away
our winter weariness,
welcoming spring.
© Catherine Flynn, 2015
Be sure to visit Robyn Campbell for the Poetry Friday Round Up, and thank you to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Beth for this space for teachers and others to share their stories each day during the month of March and on Tuesdays throughout the year. Don’t forget to visit Two Writing Teachers to read more Slice of Life posts.
Reading to the Core 
I love this idea of the “moods” of snow. I’m a fan of the whisper!
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Love the poem and the idea of moods of snow. I’ve never heard it expressed quite that way. What a lovely thought. It’s time for winter weariness to be washed away. 🙂
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Great idea, and you wrote it beautifully, Catherine. The repetition is inviting all the way through.
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I love this! You have captured the loveliness of winter…and the arrival of spring. Your word choice helps you create clear images in the mind of your reader. Thank you for reminding me of how beautiful winter can be…and how relentless it feels sometimes.
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Catherine, I love your snow poem! I live in a place where this is almost never snow so I could really relate to the first few lines: whispers itself into the world, falling gently to the ground, muffling every sound. This perfectly captures my snow experience, but I love that you captured other snow experiences as well. Beautiful!
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Beautifully written, Catherine! Especially like the stark shadows crisp as x-rays. 🙂
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So beautifully done, Catherine! You captured so many subtle moods in this poem.
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I love your Sometimes poem, “blue in the moon’s glow.” I used the form one poetry friday when I was stuck, too. Great form. It’s in Kate’s new book 59 Reasons. https://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/sometimes-on-the-bayou-in-january/
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Hi Honey! Would you mind if I shared your poem on FB?
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Of course I wouldn’t mind. Thank you!
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Catherine, thank you for finding your winter whispering and giving it tribute in your blog for the Poetry Friday readers. I like the fact that snow takes on different stances in your poem and that you let it become a reflective entity. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey.
The challenge is now how to marry the poem to the photo in a beautifully crafted version. Can you try that out?
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And sometimes snow…well, I’m thinking of a verse that is not as lovely and lyrical as yours for those giant piles of dirty snow in parking lots!
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That is a lovely poem. I walked through the woods, where dog walkers go. Now that is snow about which I would not write a poem! Yours is much more sweet. If only it could stay so fresh and pure after it lands…
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Catching up today on some older posts that I meant to read, but never got to… this is lovely, Catherine! (So glad I didn’t miss it entirely.) Happy almost-spring to you. 🙂
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[…] to “jumpstart…student’s writing and thinking.” Both poems first appeared here and here. Thank you, Linda, for including my work in your […]
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