Blogging for a Cure, Day 26
November 9th, 2007 by jules
Below is today’s Robert’s Snow schedule. In honor of Poetry Friday, the snowflake pictured here is Jane Yolen’s 2005 snowflake, “Second Snow” (see this post for her ’04 poem-on-a-snowflake). Jane wrote this poem especially for Robert’s Snow. Calligrapher Amy Lin inscribed the words.
Did you see yesterday’s features? All the features are fab, and I appreciate all the participating bloggers. For a great story about the sheer power of elementary art teachers, see Josephine Cameron’s feature on Matt Tavares and his snowflake.
Don’t forget this page where all the features are being compiled in one spot.
Here is today’s schedule.
- Susan Kathleen Hartung, featured by Elaine Magliaro at Wild Rose Reader
- Mary Peterson, featured by Cheryl Klein at Brooklyn Arden
- Annette Simon, featured by “MsMac” at Check It Out
- Mélanie Watt, featured by Emily Beeson at Whimsy Books
Yes.
(Just answering the snowflake’s question.)
On a serious note, what do you think she means by “after relief, beyond all awe”?
Susan, an attempt at an answer: Past debilitating grief?
Any other thoughts? Anyone else around?
I’m here, Jules! Just a day late getting around to reading Poetry Friday!
Here’s my attempt at Yolen’s poem: That first snow was so amazing, but thank goodness it has thawed. What a relief. What’s this? It’s snowing AGAIN? This second snow (and all the ones after this), will just be work. The magic is gone.
I agree with Mary Lee, but I don’t agree with Yolan about the second (and all other) snows. I still, in my fourth decade, find them all amazing flake by flake. I’m tired of the clean-up, true, but while they are falling… still in awe.
Reading this within the context of her writing it specifically for a snowflake, for Robert’s Snow, I think this poem is about cancer.
Ducking the bullet once — remission — you think, you are grateful beyond all belief, beyond all awe. The relapse is a cheat.
Yes, I was thinking snowstorm-as-metaphor, too, for either grief or cancer.
Oh, maybe the “second snow” is specifically about cancer and a relapse? In that context I understand it better, though snow as a stand-in for cancer does not work so well for me.
If I read the poem just as being about snow, then I’m with Cloudscome and don’t buy that the second snow is not as thrilling as the first. I’ll admit to being a little confounded by the poem.
Susan, yes, it’s a nice, juicy challenge. I tried considering it in light of Yolen’s first snowflake-poem, but it didn’t necessarily give me any brilliant insights, though I love that first one.