The Snowflake Gardener

 

The Snowflake Gardener Has Been Busy!

 

Since I have been working so much in my Snowflake Garden for the past six days, I decided that now would be the perfect time to share again with you another one of my favorite poems.  Almost exactly five years ago, I first posted on WORDWALK “The Snowflake Garden.”  Re-posting this poem also gives me the opportunity to remind those of you who have a copy of my book, The Christmas Carriage and Other Writings of the Holiday Season, that the final four pieces in my little book are what I call “the January pieces.”  So, on one of these snowy January days, you can still seasonally appropriately take down from a bookshelf a copy of my 101-page book for your winter reading pleasure.  Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the wintry whimsy of this poem.

 

A Snowflake Garden

 

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

 

 

For my winter garden,

I planted just a few snowflakes.

How they grew and multiplied!

With my shovel,

I transplanted some of them;

and they keep growing higher and higher.

 

From Mother Nature’s Nursery,

from one little seed of snow,

so much continues

to grow and grow.

The gray clouds and bitter wind,

the Polar Vortex and other such Arctic masses

have just been perfect for The Massa Snow Garden.

 

Would you like some seedlings of snow?

A snowflake garden has no weeds to pull,

no bugs or winter worms.

 

Dressed in my Alaska attire,

I tend to my bountiful harvest,

almost every day.

Still the snowflakes spread

like the most fertile of ground covers

to rival the summerside’s phlox and vincas.

 

Working in my snowflake garden,

I look toward the sky

and want to shout to Mother Nature:

“Enough already!

Tell all those angels

to stop crocheting snowflakes!”

How can such delicate, tiny works of art

amass to such a splendid mess?

 

No, no, I am channeling

my inner Snow-Angel attitude

and spreading some January Joy.

My mid-winter mantra is as follows:

I do not want to escape the Frozen Tundra!

I do like my little snowscape!

I like my snowflake garden!

 

Now, as I, in a more mellow mood,

continue to shovel,

to cultivate the delicate snowflakes of my garden,

I sing:

“Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, SNOW!”

 

 

Yours (almost) truly,

Alice in Snowland

 

[copyright 2016]

 

January 22, 2014, Wednesday

re-posted on January 23, 2019, Wednesday

Stay warm and cozy!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow (who has been wearing her blue boots and has not yet lost one this season!  As always, HURRAY for Willow!)