a chill, if you will

today in school, the kids and i did memorization reviews. this year i gave them seasonal poetry to memorize (a simple haiku for the 5 year old, and a little more complex one for the 8 year old). the ones my daughter memorized are among my favorites, ever.

and seeing as though it is wretched hot outside, i found her winter poem especially soothing today.

join me for a moment.

close your eyes (well, actually don't do that...). ummmm.....let your eyelids become slightly heavy. like you just sipped your first bit of morning coffee or tea. that's it.....

now transfix yourself all the way ahead of time to winter. dead winter. a wide open field encompasses you, with large naked oaks cutting a few inches off your peripheral view on each side. snow covers everything. and it is snowing now. no other noises. just the "pit pit pit" of big and small snowflakes waltzing together through the ever so slightest breeze. not even so much that you feel the breeze.....just enough that it moves the snowflakes around in little happy swirls.
you hold out your hand just in time to have one fat ole snowflake float right down on your fingertip and stay there, refusing to melt until you can see every single stem and structure of icy beauty.

now, this is key. imagine the softest voice you have ever known and love. perhaps an actor or actress, or your mother's, or grandmother's. for me, i hear gabriel byrne.

now this voice begins to speak. perhaps this person you visualize is right there beside you. just talking above a whisper (because of course you don't want to drown out all that "pit pit pit" of snow). or maybe it is like a story in your head, a bedtime poem that your mother softly spoke as your mind fell off to sleep.

and this is what is said:



before i melt
come, look at me
this lovely, icy filigree

of a great forest
in one night
i make a wilderness of white

by skyey cold
of crystals made
all softly on your finger laid

i pause that you
my beauty see

breathe
and i vanish instantly.


simple beauty. that's walter de la mare. genius. find him, read him.

perhaps tomorrow, while i'm in the throws of a heat ridden hot flash, courtesy of the pregnancy, i will sit my extra wide self down upon a pillow, close my eyes, and let this piece remind me that the mind can win out over body if given the chance.....