Sunday, January 13, 2013

A Different Point of View





You’d think, looking out across the vast expanse of snowy meadow that snow would be the great concealer, covering every sin of autumn. You would be wrong. Snow is, instead the great revealer, carrying on its surface the calligraphy of bird feet, the black dot trail of infinitesimal seed dispersal, the tracks of leaf travel refrozen in small puddles of melt. On its surface are scrawled the death stories of bloom and blossom, the life stories of mole and mouse, the travel journals of fox and coyote.


Snow reveals man’s impatience with weather where it is heaped, gravel-stained, along the roadsides and pushed impatiently back against the banks of pond ice. It recounts, in rounded belly and stony eyes, the story of a child at play and bears traces of snowshoe and ski with grace.


Nothing under the snow is unknown, only seen in another form. Boulders sleep under blankets, bushes huddle in imitation of sheet-draped parlor furniture, fence posts and tree branches become confections, frosted and glittering. You could speak of snow as the great concealer but you would be wrong. It merely puts the familiar in an unfamiliar light and reveals the minutiae of the normally unobserved.






 Thanks, Hilary!



12 comments:

My Maine Blog said...

Pauline this is such a beautiful way to express, what I think, many of us who live in snow country and lie in wait for the long winter to be over, think about. What you write about is truly thought provoking and every morning when I look out to see what is new...it's always that I am in search for what new tracks have happened overnight and what has fallen onto the snow that ultimately stands out like a sore thumb be it a leaf, a pine branch or whatever...and thankfully it will all change in just a matter of a few weeks when everything comes alive again and a whole new world opens up before our very eyes. You write so beautifully and your words are so expressive and revealing ... I wish I had your talent.

Brian Miller said...

i am envious your snow....i want to play in it...i wonder if i had it all the time if i would appreciate and look forward to it....73 degrees here....we are in spring already...everything it blooming and will probably be killed by frost soon...

Tabor said...

Beautiful truth!

molly said...

"....the calligraphy of bird feet....
the death stories of bloom and blossom.......the travel journals of fox and coyote." So beautifully expressed, and I can almost hear the hush!

J Cosmo Newbery said...

Love that snowman!

Marc Leavitt said...

Pauline:
A marvelous use of metaphor; to paraphrase Robert Browning, mans' reach should exceed his grasp, else what's a metaphor!

Kerry said...

What gorgeous prose, Pauline. And you are so right: "putting the familiar in an unfamiliar light" is just what a cover snow will do.

Char said...

Wonderful, simply wonderful.

Hilary said...

I suspect that there's very little which escapes your point of view, Pauline. Loved this.

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite posts of yours - and that's saying a lot. Beautiful and eye-opening! And, like Brian, I'm jealous of your snow!

Pauline said...

MMB, thanks for stopping by and commenting. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I enjoyed my visit to your site :)

Brian - and more snow has fallen since! It's the way winter should be.

Thanks, Tabor :)

Molly - I love being out in the snow!

JCN - I've never outgrown the pleasure of playing in the snow,

lol Marc!

Thanks, Kerry :)

Thanks for visiting and commenting, Char :)

Hilary - many thanks for another POTW mention.

Pleased you are pleased, Barbara - it was a sweet :)

Judith said...

The eyes, and the sensitivity, and the words ---
This is poetry incarnate.
(Not to mention the photos.)