Winter Weather Warning

     The winter weather warning was right! It snowed all day yesterday, and I am so happy! What a white and glorious wonderland is framed by my window!

    The firs and pines are bowed down with their white burden. Each limb of the apple tree is outlined with a ribbon of snow. Six inches of snow soften the ground. Humpy Mountain looks frozen in place.

    Everything is so still, hanging in the balance of beauty.

    Here is my

Ode to a Winter Landscape

Nothing is so beautiful as a winter landscape

    When fire-folks of frost in the frozen fields

        Wink rainbows at the morning sun

    When the unity of white undoes dappled things

    When the squeak of skis on snow

        sneaks into the unity of silence

        in the snow-muffled forest

    When the air is so cold it hurts your teeth to smile

        But you can't

                stop

                        smiling

Because nothing is so beautiful

    as snow-laden fir boughs against a cobalt sky

    the descending blue rushing towards whipped-cream peaks

Nothing is so beautiful as the kiss of snowflakes

    whisper-soft from steel-gray clouds

Nothing more magical than the inaudible fall

    of snow outside the window

    descending like down from overstuffed clouds

    the fire at your back shining like shook foil

Nothing is so beautiful as winter stars

    splintering in the cold air

    of a landscape which—

            winter scene

            sweet, especial winter scene—

                    is charged with grandeur

                                and

                    gathers to a greatness

                                of insuperable cold

                                unsurpassed silence

                                unconditional beauty