Sharing my newest poem today – something a little bit autobiographical that I plan on including in my winter-themed collection:
Snow Blowing
Dad likes to clear snow at night.
He says there’s something special about
being outside, by yourself
in the dark and cold
with nothing but the vrum, vrum, vrum
of the snow-blower
chewing up everything in its path
and shooting it skyward
like a winter volcano
erupting in a graceful arch
of snow and ice.
“You get a lot of thinkin’ done,”
Dad says.
“Just you and the machine
and one job to do.”
“It’s a certain kind of peaceful,”
he says.
“Clears your mind.”
I don’t really understand
how working so hard
in the dark and cold,
pushing, pulling,
angling, arching,
a lone light leading his way,
can be peaceful.
It seems like such…
…work.
But maybe I’ll learn
what Dad means
next winter,
when we get the snow-blower
and both go outside
together
to clear snow at night.
– © 2015, Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved
Linda Baie is hosting Poetry Friday at her blog, Teacher Dance, so head on over and check out all the links and poetry!
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Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme 
This is something to think about, reminds me of my grandfather, always willing to do what we perceived was the hard work, but was thoughtful while doing. Nice, Matt. I don’t think you linked up on my post, Matt, hence no one is finding you? I’d do it for you, but can’t without your e-mail.
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Thanks, Linda. It should be linking now – for some reason, the post never went online last night when I published it, but I fixed it shortly before noon.
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I’ve heard people say this about mowing the lawn, that there’s a certain meditative quality. You’ve captured that here, Matt, and the child’s wondering and longing to connect with the father’s quiet strength.
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Love the image of a “winter volcano” – thanks for sharing. And, keep warm!!
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Thank you both! I appreciate you stopping by.
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Matt, I am glad that I found your poem because you were not listed on the PF site as logging in. Coming home tonight, I saw a man outside with his snow blower. The snow shot up just as you described. How coincidental that would happen and I would find out that you are publishing a poem of that image. Would you like to place this poem in the Winter Whisperings Gallery? Do you have a photo. I don’t own a snowblower so I don’t have a picture that would go with this.
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Thank you, Carol! Weird…when I left my comment on Linda’s page, I never even saw any links – I assumed we just left the URL in our comments! Crud. But thanks for letting me know. And yes, feel free to use that for the gallery, if you’d like. I don’t have a photo, either, but I’ll send one I found on Photobucket you might be able to use.
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Matt, since I am not using WordPress for my posts I usually never look here. Today, I stumbled upon your reply from 10 days ago. I have your poem and photo, Courtship, in my folder for Winter Whisperings and see that you sent me an email with a snow blowing pic and the poem. Is that the pic you are mentioning in Photobucket? It would be better if you sent me a comment back on Twitter DM or gmail since I don’t check Word Press.
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