Bomb Cyclone 2018: The Landscape Vanished

Slowing Down, Featured

 

the landscape vanished

Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States writes so beautifully about the ordinary. I thought I would share his poem Snow Day to accompany these photos I’ve taken in Connecticut, some as recent as a few days ago, but all, like this poem, seem timeless.

Snow Day

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows

the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.

In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news

that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed,
the All Aboard Children’s School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with – some will be delighted to hear –

the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School,
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and – clap your hands – the Peanuts Play School.

So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.

And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.

 

The view from our window when snow is falling

 

Beach Road neighbors

 

Sasco Beach in Southport CT

 

Just love this Yacht Yard in town

 

Steve, in an older photo in the snow

 

Thank goodness the power didn’t go out

 

Moon blue pajamas in the snow

I just had to

 

The small yachts

 

A little wintery color


All of these photographs are taken by me. I used my trusty iPhone 7 and Canon 5DMark3.

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