Thursday, December 21, 2006

It's December 21st and Where's the Snow?
By Don Iannone

Bone-chilling December rain fell lightly
upon depressed red-headed cardinals, pecking
through muddy seed beneath a dripping feeder.
I overheard one redbird urge her mate
to book a flight to Billings, where
surely the snow will fly on Christmas day.
The neighbor's Christmas decorations,
hung ever so carefully a couple Saturdays ago,
looked pathetically helpless
in bringing cheer to the season.
I met the mail lady at the box this morning,
greeting her with a contrived Merry Christmas.
Mustering a bah humbug smile,
she returned the greeting, but
quickly added that everyone should try singing
"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"
to bring on some winter whiteness.
Why do we long so for snow on Christmas?
My Buddhist friends would say it's our conditioning...
and I'm inclined to agree, yet
I guess I'm still dreaming of a white Christmas.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

9 comments:

serenity said...

Having never had a white Christmas, I do so long for one. To know what it must be like to blanketed in the purity of the white stillness and reflect on purpose and meaning and have a fire in the fireplace and hot chocolate and Christmas carols and scarves and snowmen and walking in the snow and snow angels....... I suppose it is about conditioning, but it is also about experience, about emotion, about feeling, about being alive.

So I wish for you a white Christmas...living where Christmas darn well SHOULD be white, after all.

Blessings of peace and joy be with you this Christmas, Don.

1:25 PM
Kathleen said...

Where is all the snow you say...? It's all right here...!!!! I just shoveled myself out of 2 feet of it! I'll see if I can send some your way Don...! :)

3:39 PM
Bob said...

My mother used to get really excited if it started snowing.
I have worked as a mailman and trudging through the snow is hard work indeed!

6:41 PM
J. Andrew Lockhart said...

I loved your poem, but I sure don't want to see snow!! I lay in my blanket and dream of the tropics! :)

1:45 AM
Pat Paulk said...

Good luck!! We won't be getting any, but then we hardly ever do.

8:00 AM
polona said...

no snow for us this christmas either.
there's a saying in slovenia, if christmas is green, easter will be white. sure don't want to see any snow on or about easter...

1:05 PM
Romeo Morningwood said...

You need to move to Denver!
Here is hoping that your conditioned dreams come true,
and much, much, more.
Best Wishes to a true Gentleman.

4:09 PM
trinitystar said...

those that have snow dread it ... those that dont ... long for it.
she guesses it is the silence it brings
first snow virginal, purity.
Paradox really ... beauty that can be a beast.
lovely poem Don

3:46 AM
Borut said...

I’ve been thinking about this poem!? Your Buddhist friends may well be right when they say that it’s our conditioning which makes us associate Christmas with snow. I’m not aware that, geographically or historically, the story of Jesus is connected with snow in any way at all. What if climatic changes on a global scale are just a part of the process of massive de-conditioning of humanity? The story of Jesus may well be universal in its essence, so why the snow. I’m beginning to understand the value of the Muslim calendar based on lunar months. Their great religious feasts rotate around the year. Each year they start on a different date. In this way, the believers are unable to associate the meaning of a particular occasion with anything else but the inner, or at least the intended outward, meaning of it. !? Just a though before Christmas!? Thank you.

2:41 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Friends' Blogs