Madelyn Rosenberg

I’m no longer confused about the weather. Even if my daffodils hadn’t been covered by Monday’s snowfall, I couldn’t escape the forecast for today. More snow. Big snow. “Historic,” says the Washington Post, which is calling it Snowmageddon. “Be prepared to shelter in place,” says Arlington County, using words you just can’t throw around in the D.C. area. For my snow day activity (since school was cancelled well before the first flake fell) I’m having my kids write poems about snow; I’m doing the same in my brand new Moleskin notebook, a gift from my friend Sarah in the loveliest, freshest green you ever saw. Will I write about empty bread shelves or why people suddenly feel the need to hoard squash before a storm? Or will I write of stillness, cocoa, or the blinding white? For inspiration, I’m looking at this poem from Mary Oliver. What will you write about the snow?

Snow Geese
by Mary Oliver

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!
What a task
to ask
of anything, or anyone,
yet it is ours,
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.
One fall day I heard
above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound
Read on!