Walking in the snow on 6th Ave...

I love winter. Anyone who knows me is entirely aware of this fact already, but it deserves repeating. It might be shocking but even I sometimes forget this, especially in moments when it is freezing and windy and I'm walking outside and wearing the wrong clothes. But then it snows and I remember that winter is definitely my favorite season. No other season has the ability to, in an instant, positively change my outlook on the world and put me in a better mood. I can't really explain it but standing outside in the snow has the effect of making me totally happy. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that when it's snowing I tend to think about the fact that it is snowing and thus forget about anything that might have been bothering me. People are always saying that we need to live in the moment--something which is much more difficult than this simple sounding phrase would suggest. But for me, when I'm walking in the snow, living in the moment is all I can seem to do. Everything becomes about the physical--I'm cold and getting wet but loving the way that the world looks in a totally literal way. Everything besides the fact that it's snowing seems to vanish and it is this moment, this shift that I love. Snow is beautiful and even in New York it makes everything (myself included) somehow more peaceful.

Writing this post reminded me that I had written a poem about snow a couple of years ago. Re-reading it, I realize it reflects a lot of the things I just wrote. I'm adding it here, with a few minor changes:

There is something in the silence of snow
That sticks to streetlight shadows lingering in orchid candy dusk
That as soon as it’s touched
Drips through cold kissed outstretched hands
And whispers as it fades away
Into sequined mist that dances on glistening streets
That swirls into curls of coffee cup steam
And melts off of eyelashes etching icicle tears,
And drowns all the trainwrecks and pinpricks and scars
Dissolving the world with champagne bubble pops
Until there is nothing in the silence of snow.