Happy Thanksgiving, Canadians!

Last year I wrote about the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday. This past Friday I was brainstorming ideas for another Thanksgiving-related post while the first snow was drifting down. This reminded me of a poem I wrote six years ago, so I dug it out and my husband suggested I post in on the blog.

I’m not much of a poet and I cringe a little to read this, but I hope you enjoy it.

Snow Moment

Who can measure the moment when rain turns to snow?
Imperceptible shift of the air in the glow
Of a dusk that’s descending on wet silent streets
While a figure in silence looks out on the scene
From the loft of a house that is set in a row
Of houses on houses where nobody knows
Or nobody cares that away from the heat
And the noise and the fuss of lives salty and sweet
Is a moment that hovers in wait for the gleam
Of the first silent flakes falling softly and free.

Yet the snow falls unnoticed, melting into the road
Save by one lonely figure who puts on her coat.

Snow on her bare hands, snow in her hair,
Snow on the ground and snow in the air.
Footsteps footsteps
Tapping a beat:
Happiness happiness
Breathe it in deep.

For she knows days to come will be rainy and warm
While the sidewalks are crowded with ungrateful forms
And then the long winter, the world turned from white
To dingiest grey – people grumble and blame.
So she vows to remember a moment forlorn
Mid autumn days pieced together from sun and from storm
Unexpected, unlooked for, to shine in the night
The first snowfall which came and dazzled the sight
When a day that was dull for a moment became
A reminder of beauty that cannot be tamed.

Has it snowed where you are this fall? (And, what do you think, should I work on my poetry writing skills? I thought this book took a good approach.)