Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST January 24th 2022

15 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our this session!

For this session we close-read the poem The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens, posted below.

The prompt for this session was: “In the wind…“

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

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Please join us for our next session Wednesday January 26th at 12pm EST,  with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

15 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST January 24th 2022”

  1. Patricia D.

    My teacher sometimes whispers
    while at other times she howls.
    Her presence is apparent
    when the leaves rustle
    and the sparrows sing
    while I stand still in silence.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • al3793

      Patricia, the simplicity of these few lines reflect the snowman’s simple existence, and I wonder what he thinks about the things that go on in the world around him, day in and day out, as he does merely what he exists to do, stand in silence. Nice. Andre

      Like

      Reply
  2. Scarlet Kinney

    When I sing to the trees
    and they sing back,
    When I sing to the springs
    and they in turn sing to the sea far below us,
    When I drum thunder,
    Sing lightning,
    It’s the wind that responds,
    Sometimes whispering
    Sometimes mourning
    Sometimes shouting,
    Echoing the state of my heart
    In the way it moves through the forest.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • al3793

      Scarlet, I am moved by the speaker’s connection via song to the trees, the water, the thunder and the wind that knows how to respond to what the heart is saying. Andre

      Like

      Reply
  3. michele348

    In the wind…
    I wind my way on this snowy trail.
    It’s approaching dark and the forest birds are finding shelter for the hours of night.
    My cheeks are numb from the biting wind, but still, I forge on.
    The forest is silent, except for the crunching of ice and leaf litter under my feet.
    I am reminded of a time when this same forest world is full of life- flora and fauna alike.

    But I must be content to savor this moment,
    this special moment,
    when the rest of the world has disappeared,
    and I am one with this cold woodland scene
    that surrounds me in its warmth.

    Like

    Reply
    • al3793

      Michele, your speaker provides me with an experience that resonates deeply with me today as I shared that experience in the Pennsylvania woods. I was especially struck by the loudness of the snow underfoot and the quiet tone of the wind. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. al3793

    In the wind I feel the chill of the cool mountain morning
    I smell sage wafting up the chute trail as I descend towards the lake icing out
    I hear the songs of an early spring, the yellow warbler’s, “sweet, sweet, you’re so sweet”,
    like the aroma of the sage,
    juvenile leaves ripple in the wind,
    glittering lime green lights trying to cover the gray browns of winter.

    A morning’s trek to the tundra where the wind is so different
    the spring sun blinds the traveler
    but the wind orients the blind to the elements,
    snow now stinging frost nipped, red cheeks and
    crunching under the soled foot that cannot feel
    exploring with the wind as guide
    nature’s most delicate and unforgiving landscapes.

    Andre

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Elizabeth

    In the wind
    I feel strong
    The harder it blows
    The greater I push
    To plant my feet on the ground
    To anchor me
    As I feel it’s life force

    Like

    Reply
    • al3793

      Elizabeth,
      I hear in your speaker’s voice that there is something reinforcing about leaning in to the force of the wind. It prompts a grounded-ness that is life giving, like roots of a tree that, in doing it’s thing, like the snowman observes so much of life at time moves on. Andre

      Like

      Reply
  7. Trisha

    In the wind there is nothing that stays the same. It moved anything caught inside it. In the wind, Dorothy lost her footing and found herself in Oz. In the wind, our screams disappear and become a choir. In the wind, even Ozymandius disintegrated to dust. In the wind, anything is possible, anything might be. That I one day will be able to smile at that magical terror and be free.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  8. Shrikar Modukuri

    In the Wind by Shrikar Modukuri (based on prompt provided by Columbia Narrative Medicine):

    In the wind,
    in this beautiful deep sky shadow,
    a rather solar and light wind runs passes me,
    in addition to the powerful breeze that runs across me.

    This prevailing and profound acceleration of the breeze runs through my veins.
    No one can measure, as again no one can express.
    The vitality of life and a deep sense of love last until the twilight moon, as it reflects on my eyes.
    The wind once again waves at me, in the beautiful deep sky shadow.
    In the wind, where life, love, and light, always prevails.

    Like

    Reply

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