It was an early snow,
soft spun cotton
in the nostrils.
It descended upon things
still alive,
tried to smother
their last breaths.
The limbs still hung
heavy with leaves .
They bowed low under
a weight they could not bear,
making them scrape the ground
and beg for release.
my hand
could have shaken them free
but there they lay
This morning, sun
teased with renewal
the roots of tenuous life,
that have not yet
ceased to feed.
For the liar sun
they are dying.
I see already
the shroud of brown
that surrounds
their golden faces.
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There are things that we need and things that are Ned. Nedfulthings: a collection of labyrinthine conversations and a fistful of dreams... |
October Snow
Comments
Re: October Snow
by
ME Strauss
on Sun 30 Oct 2005 05:29 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Despite their meaning your words lay light, like this snow that will not last. I can't help feel a cleansing feeling from this poem. Though when I go back to look for it, it's not there in the words. Is it between the lines? Or is it just in my mind?
I thought of you when I heard of this October snow. Re: October Snow
by
Ned
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 07:02 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Liz,
Perhaps because you know this snow will not last, and all traces erased in a day. Yet, it is a portent, a warning, an early reminder of the signs we see all around us. Like leaves that have not given up the green or the last remaining fall flowers, the signs of brown and winter are surrounding us. This snow has no future, it is just another reminder of the time of the seasons. Re: October Snow
by
glenni
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 07:14 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
For everything there is a season. There is a time to laugh a time to cry.
How warm the sun is, making us believe it will shine upon us forever. The snow soft and gentle, yet stifling and smothering. Oh how innocent are the things which may yet cause our pain and death. The seasons change and play and tease we mere mortals. Yet with each change there is hope, Glenni Re: Re: October Snow
by
Ned
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 07:20 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Glenni,
Here the seasons seem to change a couple of times a day. You escaped this part of our weather, but some day you should see it. Yes, the snow is beautiful and yet means death is nigh. Thank you for your insights. Re: October Snow
by
Anonymous
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 01:52 PM EST | Permanent Link
First snow. Enchanting and fleeting, but caught in your words forever.
easywriter Re: Re: October Snow
by
Ned
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 07:18 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Thanks easywriter. It is enchanting, and thank goodness it is fleeting. :) Thanks for the great comment.
Re: October Snow
by
Anonymous
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 04:36 PM EST | Permanent Link
Your description of the snow catches that quality of purity we all enjoy in the idea of snowfall, until the reality sets in, but alongside it you point up the facts of transience and decay, as well as the relationship between whiteness, coldness and death. Underneath the fluffiness of snowflakes, it's a wintry poem.
Ken http://strangerken.blogspot.com Re: Re: October Snow
by
Ned
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 07:09 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Ken,
It was a beautiful and fluffy snowfall, these are the snows that are breathtaking. It is far too early, of course, and so the earth was not ready for it, still holding onto the last bits of green. But that is New England, the temperature hovered above freezing all day, it snowed, the world was white and the next day the sun shone and it was nearly 70F, almost forty degrees warmer. However, there is no mistaking what the first snowfall means. It is a first alarm, an alert of the relentless winter. Re: October Snow
by
garnet
on Thu 03 Nov 2005 11:42 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
I always admire how your bring such emotion into your poems. Even descriptive words have their emotions. Like descend, smother, bowed, beg, scrape.
Re: Re: October Snow
by
Ned
on Fri 04 Nov 2005 07:08 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Thank you Garnet. That is actually what I strive to do, or perhaps what comes naturally. Either way, it is what I do and how I am. Thoreau wrote in Walden a line about being in sympathy with the leaves that were blown in the wind, that is the kind of thing that always appealed to me. Sometimes it is possible to feel something inside and know what it would be like to be those leaves.
Re: October Snow
by
Anonymous
on Wed 09 Nov 2005 10:25 PM EST | Permanent Link
It was snowing in the mountains that I drove through the day you wrote this...and was gone the next day. Looks like we shared the same snowstorm this time
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