Winter Is Poem-ing!


By Paulette Beete

Full disclosure: The only thing I actually want to do once the cold weather strikes is hibernate. Preferably with a good poem to ponder by lamplight (as the sun sets way too early for my liking) and a cup of hot chocolate with all the marshmallows. As for those of you who actually want to get out into the winter weather, I have it on good authority that poetry is also a great way to defrost after iceskating, snowshoeing, or whatever it is you chionophiles get up to out there in the snow. Here are a few wintering poems to get you started; we hope you'll share some of your favorites with us on Twitter (@NEAarts) or on the Arts Endowment Facebook page. One last thing before I return to my WFH cave, you can click on the poem's title to read it in full. 

excerpt from Linda Pastan poem

“…the snow/ has forgotten/ how to stop/ it falls/ stuttering.” — from "Blizzard" by Linda Pastan

excerpt from Natalie Diaz poem

"...and the noise of her boots upon the snow is the weight of a night bird bending the meteor-blue branch fruiting white flames of cotton." — from "Ink-Light" by Natalie Diaz (Mojave)

excerpt from Robert Hayden poem

"Sundays too my father got up early/ and put his clothes on in the blueback cold,.." — from "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden

excerpt from Pablo Neruda poem

"my feet were/ two fish made/ of wool,/ two long sharks/ sea-blue, shot/ through/ by one golden thread..." — from "Ode to My Socks" by Pablo Neruda, translated by Robert Bly

excerpt from Joy Harjo poem

"Like Coyote, like Rabbit, we could not contain our terror and clowned our way through a season of false midnights." — from "Grace" by Joy Harjo (Muscogee)

excerpt from Dobby Gibson poem

"When I say, Snow, what will become of this world?/ it says, I was not taught future tense." — from "After Reading Kobayashi Issa’s The Spring of My Life on My 49th Birthday" by Dobby Gibson