Advent: 18

When I lived in Ohio, I spent a lot of time walking in the snow–loving it, cursing it, hearing it fall on frozen snow crust. I adore this poem, which reminds me of walking through the snow to my classes, before most of the campus was awake. Like an idiot, I took 8 am classes practically every semester. I loved the feeling of the campus slowly waking up.

I would never want to live in the snow belt again, but I do have some nostalgia for it.

VELVET SHOES
by Elinor Morton Wylie

Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.
I shall go shod in silk,
And you in wool,
White as white cow’s milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.
We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.
We shall walk in velvet shoes:
Wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.