In the last couple of weeks, our part of Northeast Iowa has seen a series of late winter snows. I’ve been struck by how different these are than the snows that arrived riding the back of cold Alberta clippers in January. This poem came from watching one of these late winter storms arrive late one night.
Check out more poetry at Greg’s place, Gotta Book.
Late Snow
From the gaping
darkness
immense flakes
hurtle through the
feeble glow cast
by the porch light,
flashing like
salmon before
the spawn.
Once simple
dust and water,
heavy, they fall.
No artful meander;
now in March,
just a full-throated
banshee-keening
plummet toward
earth.
© Steve Peterson
I love “banshee-keening plummet.” This whole poem is very evocative. Thanks for sharing it!
Thanks, Ruth! We had a snow day this last week. The snow arrived ferociously, suddenly the air was filled with flakes. Huge. Fast. Wet. Cold.
The heavy, wet (very welcome) snow that broke branches in my mom’s trees in Eastern Colorado is headed our way! I’ll keep the porch light on and see if it inspires a poem for me, too!
I hear there is a BIG snow coming through IN and OH today and tonight!
Eastern CO. What a beautiful, stark landscape.