Greetings, Poetry Lovers! And, Happy Birthday to me this Poetry Friday. ;0) I'm looking forward to our kiddos and baby grands coming to visit before the snow hits later. Daugter Morgan's birthday was last week, so we're double-celebrating. I shoveled piles of money into the big box store and grocery store on Thursday, because I'm not exactly sure how long we might all be "stuck" here by the sticky snow. (It's always a big deal in the South if anything frozen falls from the sky.)
Last weekend, we were all hunkered down in our respective homes (mountains/foothills of NC, SC, and Georgia) because of the ice storm. I had collected beaucoups of bundles of firewood, lots and lots of batteries, and extra buckets and containers to hold water, as well as bottled waters, and food. (We have a well, so no power=no water. And, we don't have a generator.)
Our fireplace is small, but hubby Jeff can rustle up some yummy vegan fare in a Dutch oven or cast iron pan, as we discovered during Helene here in upstate SC a year and half ago. We have a metal camping coffee pot to heat tea water over the coals. Also, we bought a camp stove for days like these but haven't had to try it out yet. I did also buy a small tent for this round, just in case the power goes out and we have to set it up indoors. (Wind chills overnight this weekend might dip below zero! Pretty much unheard of here.) Of course, the wee grand-laddie & his baby sissy might want to camp out indoors anyway... we'll see!
We were very lucky and pleasantly surprised not to lose power last weekend. And, our neighbor who has a grading and construction business cleared one side of our steep, horseshoe driveway with his plow, so Jeff could get to work as the week went on. How wonderful is that?
Wishing you a comfy corner with hot cocoa and something perfect to read this weekend. The heartbreaking news rages on, but I find I have to take breaks from it, too, to be able to function.
And poetry helps, of course, like this crystalline gem by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955).
The Snow Man
by 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; ...
(read the rest here.)
And please join our dear Amy for this week's Roundup at The Poem Farm. [Week before last, I featured the poems Amy and I wrote each other for the December Poem Swap; that post is here.] May the last days of the January sun smile on you -- wishing you warmth and comfort, snow or no.
