something cold. For those of us in the northern hemisphere who are VERY HOT right now.
The Snow Man, Wallace Stevens
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.
(photo from Christine Breslin’s Elizabeth Park Series; Elizabeth Park being where Wallace Stevens often walked, composing poems on the way to work)
….beautiful.
Ahhhh. Thank you. That feels good. (it also feels good to be in my air-conditioned office!)
Love it. This is exactly the only kind of poetry I really enjoy. Reminds me of Robert Frost.
Ok, I am going to admit it. I get lost in poetry like this, because I simply don’t understand it. Getting lost in snow is not that bad though.
Thanks for the cool thoughts. Brilliant photograph, by the way. I followed the link and saw she used what was probably a Holga or similar. Obviously rebelling against the perfection of modern camera’s too!
Doug
Hello all — I love this poem because it is about the relationship of the poet to the world he creates– a relationship Stevens explores in a lot of poems and one I find very interesting. It’s also just a beautiful poem. I thought about you photographers when I found the link to this photo of Elizabeth Park. I very much like this idea of rebelling against the perfection of the camera. it’s interesting to see the camera used in a variety of ways to represent what one sees. And it’s a cool picture, in both senses of the word.