“The Snow Man” by Wallace Stevens [w/ Audio]

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

PROMPT: Cold Weather

How do you feel about cold weather?

In the abstract, sitting here in the tropics, I’m fond of the idea of winter. When I’m in cold weather, I’d prefer not to be.

City Winter [Haiku]

trees, straight & bare, 
line the boulevard. one leaf
blows across the walk.

“Now Close the Windows” by Robert Frost [w/ Audio]

Now close the windows and hush all the fields;
If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
It will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

DAILY PHOTO: Buda Spires in Winter

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Edge of Weather [Haiku]

Winter day:
bright sunlight at cloud's end --
glassy river.

Winter Song [Haiku]

dry leaf rattle:
shaken by a steady breeze:
Winter song.

“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

A little black thing among the snow,
Crying ''weep! 'weep!' in notes of woe!
'Where are thy father & mother? say?'
'They are both gone up to the church to pray.

'Because I was happy upon the heath,
'And smil'd among the winter's snow,
'They cloth'd me in the clothes of death,
'And taught me to sing the notes of woe.

'And because I am happy & dance & sing,
'They think they have done me no injury,
'And are gone to praise God & his Priest & King,
'Who make up a heaven of our misery.'

DAILY PHOTO: View from a Cliff, Yehliu

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“Glass was the Street – in Tinsel Peril” (1518) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Glass was the Street - in Tinsel Peril
Tree and Traveller stood.
Filled was the Air with merry venture
Hearty with Boys the Road.

Shot the lithe Sleds like Shod vibrations
Emphacized and gone
It is the Past's supreme italic
Makes the Present mean --