After the busy-ness of summer and the sweet but fleeting glory of fall, the first snow of the season is a time to take a beat and to shift gears into a slower and sometimes claustrophobic time of year. The closed-in feeling will come later when the snow is dirtied by sand and salt, freeze and thaw, and has long outstayed its welcome. However, the first snowfall?—ahhh!
First Snow Meditation
Watching the first snow, the great down
arrow of snow falling–watching the field
change its clothes from brown to white–
the way all things seem to disappear
within the snow, how it settles out
even, regardless of what hides below.
O keep silent, unmoving, just sitting
at my window, waxing pure and chill
fresh snow now mirrored within me.
