Snow Birds

There are. few things I really don't mind about winter in New England.

• Getting to wear my oversized snuggly sweaters,

• The amazing blue color of the sky

• How thick, rich, warm soups taste on a snowy day

• and if you just stop and listen, the silence you hear trudging through the snow.

  
  

But I have to admit.... on a few of these sub-zero days, I begin to understand why snowbirds fly south. Brrrrrr!

Outside my window this week during the blizzard.

Inspired by New England winters, here are the colors I chose for this week's poems:

• White

• Shadow

• Sun Glow

My first poem, "White," was written for one of Georgia Heard's wonderful webinars. She hosted Grant Snider, Author-Illustrator and poet extraordinaire, who generously illustrated a few of our poems.  I highly recommend Georgia's webinars at The Poet's Studio (see more here) and Grant's book POETRY COMICS. He is brilliant! Here is an example of his work:

A nice marriage of poetry paired with simple illustration in comic-book style.

So... without further ado, let's start with:

 White

This is the poem that started my fascination with writing poems inspired by color. Pondering the color "white," I started by thinking of all the boring things in a kid's life that are white— a piece of blank paper, a bland bowl of cold white oatmeal, white paint or crayons, etc. Then I thought how the one white thing a kid would LOVE is snow. When I decided to use the word "appetite," it seemed right to end with a food metaphor. I could just imagine the red cardinal as the cherry on top.

A favorite photo of my backyard.

Shadow

I have only skied a handful of times in my life, but all of them have made me feel this way. But with courage and perseverance, each ride down built my confidence, and I really enjoyed it. At 6'2" tall, the runs felt incredibly steep to me. I remember wondering whether the reason small kids are so fearless is that their line of sight is much closer to the ground.

Sun Glow

With 24+ inches of snow this week, I must say, a getaway to Florida is sounding better and better. For this SUN GLOW poem, I thought of a child hearing that his grandparents were snowbirds and misinterpreting it... literally!

Thank you to Margaret at her blog Reflections on the Teche for hosting Poetry Friday this week. Be sure to stop by and see the other great poems linked on her blog. If you'd like to know more about Poetry Friday, this is a great resource from Renee LaTulippe.

See you next week!