THE ARRIVAL OF SNOW:
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUSMy Aunt Sue shared the drawing because it reminded her of my house, so I searched through my various snow / Christmas photos, trying to find a close match. I settled on the one below, because of the pine boughs hanging on the porch railings and the neutral tones of the background sky (once before on a Fortnightly post).
December 22, 2009On this cloudy day . . . Snow added its cubits to the stature of the roof, the trees, the picnic tables spread as if with that hidden fabric called 'the silence cloth' by housewives who keep it under the finer damask one, to absorb the clatter of dishes and silver. Snow softened the bare limbs of the bushes.
Under its roof of ice, the river sent up bubbles: the telegraphed laments of the fish.
A single twig was now a thing of great beauty: a wand, a power, a glory. A sign.
~ from Things Invisible to See, 94
~ by Nancy Willard (1936 - 2017)
A couple of weeks ago (February 1), I heard an intriguing anecdote about someone who begins every New Year by rereading the novel
Things Invisible to See. The title was new to me, but not the author: that name rang a bell, so I took a look through my files and anthologies. There it was, a beautiful, dreamy snow poem. Interestingly, the image of snow as tablecloth (emphasis added) appears in both the novel and the poem:
The Snow Arrives After Long Silence
The snow arrives after long silence
from its high home where nothing leaves
tracks or stains or keeps time.
The sky it fell from, pale as oatmeal,
bears up like sheep before shearing.
The cat at my window watches
amazed. So many feathers and no bird!
All day the snow sets its table
with clean linen, putting its house
in order. The hungry deer walk
on the risen loaves of snow.
You can follow the broken hearts
their hooves punch in its crust.
Night after night the big plows rumble
and bale it like dirty laundry
and haul it to the Hudson.
Now I scan the sky for snow,
and the cool cheek it offers me,
and its body, thinned into petals,
and the still caves where it sleeps.
by Nancy Willard
When I googled "The Snow Arrives After Long Silence" to see what I could learn about this poem, I was rewarded with the perfect wintry coincidence. I discovered a snowy reverie by novelist
Alison McGhee, who mentions Willard's poem on her
poetry blog . McGhee is the author of one of my favorite novels,
Shadow Baby, about twin girls, Clara and Daphne Winter, born in an Upstate New York blizzard.
Two great novels for a snowy winter weekend:
Shadow Baby & Things Invisible to See
******************
Another Favorite Card
This one is from my friend Steven,
"because it sort of resembles your house!"
Dreams of a White Christmas
brought to you by:
Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870):
"During Charles Dickens’ childhood there was an unusually high number of white Christmas[es]. 6 out of 9 of his childhood Christmases were white." When he grew up and became a writer, these snowy Christmases were the ones that he described and recorded for posterity.
Irving Berlin (1888 - 1989): "
No one dreamed of a ‘White Christmas’ before this song."
Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953): "
One Christmas was so much like the other, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve, or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six." ~ from
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Numerous 19th & 20th C lyricists and composers, many of whom include visions of snow in their depictions of the first Christmas, an old - fashioned Christmas, or an ideal Christmas.
Children Skating by Percy Tarrant (1855 - 1934)
~ father of the artist Margaret Tarrant (1888 - 1959) ~
See also: "An Eternal February Day"
Next Fortnightly Post
Saturday, February 29th ~ LEAP DAY!
Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ "Waiting for the Big Snow"
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com
Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com
