by Kat | Jan 17, 2022 | General, In This Moment
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. — Martin Luther King Jr.
This is the quote I wrote in my calendar to greet me this morning. An excellent reminder when the finite disappointment seems more like endless disappointment and I have lost sight of infinite hope. This week, I am going to be refocusing on hope.
An update from last week: I shared my Bialetti pots and Karen mentioned that what coffee you use is important. This is most certainly true! I have found that a darker roast beans brew a better pot of coffee and my favorite is one we can find at our local Costco… Mayorga Café Cubano. How you grind the coffee is also important… you can’t grind it so finely that the water cannot “perk” through the grounds. I have found that an “auto-drip” grind works very well.
Just when I had begun to wonder if winter would ever arrive… it did and then some yesterday! We have about 8 inches of snow (which shuts all of Pittsburgh down!) and it is still coming down this morning. My thyme that will not die is blanketed in snow this morning… still green and I will be picking some to make some breadsticks to go with dinner. (I think it is telling me that it has infinite hope!)
But yes, it was a morning that required all.the.handknits for Sherman’s morning constitutional! Ha! (Although, all the hand knits was probably overkill considering that Sherman was out for less than 3 minutes!)
If you too are in the path of this momentous storm, stay safe and warm! It is a morning for an extra cuppa and a good book!
See you all back here on Wednesday!
by Kat | Jan 14, 2022 | General, Museum of Me
I thought it might be fun to join Kym once a month and invite you all to an exhibit of My Museum…
and then I saw January’s prompt: Something you were really good at as a child (either something you still do — or something you “grew out of” doing)
Hello fun… come back here…where are you going?
Okay so in all honesty, Gentle Readers… I worked very hard at being invisible when I was a child… or I tried to excel at being invisible at all moments. (I am very certain that I have grown out of wanting to be invisible, but it took years and years and years of work.)
Second to being invisible was escaping…
The thing I found best for accomplishing both of those things was reading and though I did not read until I was well into first grade… once I began reading I discovered the incredible world of books that were just waiting to “take me away!”
Since then, with the exception of those sleep starved years of young child parenting, I have been an avid voracious reader.
I started with good old Dick and Jane and I honestly don’t remember any other books until I discovered The Little House Books, which I loved and read over and over. I also loved any book about animals, so I had a long running Black Beauty phase as well.
I then had an “angsty teen” phase with Harlequin Romance books… I know… wut?! I can’t believe I am even admitting this here! Ha!
That angsty teen phase gave way to the so much better (NOT, LOL) “bodice ripping” books which occupied my reading hours for a good many years.
And then came the kiddos… and a whole new world of books opened up. Eric Carle was a particular favorite of mine (as well as my kids!) And I just loved that the girls (especially Rachel) adored The Little House books. And then came Harry Potter! We were the ultimate Harry Potter Family! We read them aloud together each day after homework was done. The best of times were sitting around the dinner table talking about Harry’s escapades!
Once I returned to “regular adult reading,” I no longer reached for a trashy romance novel. But I really did not have a clue about what I even liked to read! So I just began reading all sorts of genres and I discovered I liked epic “style” novels. (Think Mario Puzo, John Jakes, and James Michener style novels… I loved them!) And then I fell down the “mystery” hole and have really never climbed out. I do so love a good mystery.
And when I think now that I can “go to the library” from my iPhone and check out a book it just amazes me how far reading has come! I can pick an eBook or have an audiobook read to me!
I no longer read to become invisible, but gosh Pandemic Life has absolutely reinforced that you can absolutely “escape” in a book and find yourself in a place you never imagined.
Thank you for visiting My Museum today! I hope you all have a weekend that includes some reading! See you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Jan 12, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
January is somehow just racing on and honestly, I am shocked today is the 12th! How is that possible?
I have been doing lots of spinning and loving every single second of it! I have just two bits of fiber to spin from my Base12 Advent Spin. Seriously, this is absolutely the best purchase I made in 2021 and will absolutely be participating again this year! I am so excited to ply all these fibers/colors together that I spent a couple of days spinning two packages so I can begin the final plying. Well…I am happy to say that Final Plying will happen on Friday… and I can hardly wait!
I did get those black corduroy pants cut out, but have done ZERO sewing. Sigh. My plan is that this will “occupy” my time tomorrow to stave off any idea of “too soon” plying that might take root in my brain! Ha!
The reading has been light this week… just one finish. But it is a heavy finish… 18 + hours of listening to the very well told tale of the Sackler family.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An eye opening story… you think you have “heard” of the Sackler’s? Keefe has volumes of information to expand on what you think you might have heard and shows you how little you really know.
In reality, this is a tale of how the drug industry became the organization that drives how drugs are prescribed, how drugs are marketed, and how the the easy it was to find doctors that were ready and willing to jump on the Drug Profit Bandwagon.
It is such a sad story and one that makes me happy there are attorneys… a thing that I am rarely happy about.
This is not a story for everyone… it was a very hard listen. I took many breaks, but it tells a story that goes beyond the surface news bits you might have heard. I highly recommend.
What about you? What is keeping your attention this week?
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below! Thank you!
by Kat | Jan 10, 2022 | General, In This Moment
(And the necessary beverage to help! Ha!!)
In my household, we have finally gotten past the “Holiday Weeks” that encompass the end of the year and generally spill into the New Year. Today is the first “normal Monday” I have had in a while and it feels so good!
We had some snow on Friday for a hot minute… sigh. By Sunday it was all gone and the rains returned… by Sunday afternoon my poor yard was just one giant soggy (which then turned into the frozen tundra this morning!) Yep, weather whiplash is in high gear here… 40’s yesterday and a bitter 18° this morning.
I purposely left my Dickens Village up when I took down the remainder of Christmas… I really enjoyed it this year and leaving it up for these extra days has been a treat. But today I will take it all down and tuck it safely away for another year. I am ready for a “cleaner” mantle.
Today all this will be packed away!
Last week Bonny shared that she picked up some instant espresso to treat herself and I loved this little idea of “treating oneself”. It is one of the best self care things ever… to do something special for yourself! Some years ago I “treated” myself to a wee little Bialetti Moka Express Pot. It was the best purchase I ever made for myself! I soon added a 6-cup model and I use one of these pots every single day. I don’t own a drip coffee pot any longer. I make myself a pot every single morning and on the morning’s that Steve is here then I use the larger pot to split between us. About once a quarter I have to change the rubber gasket and once a year I put in a new filter in as well. As you can see it is well-used! (Barkeepers Friend keeps it nice and shiny!) The best part is that the only “waste” I have on a daily basis are coffee grounds and I can put them in a container to mulch into my garden.
1. All ready for service! 2. Fill with water to “this” line! 3. Next, fill the basket with grounds. 4. Finally, add some frothed milk and a splash of cinnamon syrup and enjoy!
And that is my best advice for you on this “back to normal” (??) Monday… treat yourself to something special today! And skip those guilty thoughts… just treat yourself! You are so very worth it!
Happy Monday All!
by Kat | Jan 7, 2022 | General, In This Moment
In December, as I began thinking about my word for this year… one of the things that I also spent some time contemplating was this blog. I thought long and hard about its future and I determined that I still had things to share, contributions to make, and, especially, the connections I have made here over the years! But, this blog does not write itself and that means that I have to make an actual effort to… well… create content to post here!
I have sort of mapped out a plan of post topics to help me “jump start” my creativity and so this First Friday it begins!
I will be doing quarterly “Currently” posts as a check in with myself… what am I doing. (or most importantly…what am I not doing and what should I be doing!)
Unpacking: My word! January is always such a fun month to spend looking at all the possibilities a word has and in the unpacking of the word, I always always find things I did not previously consider about the word. And I just love writing down definitions, writing down the “stream of words” that come to my mind as I unpack the word. Good things for January! It is the one month that I really like being at my desk!
Planning: Some January sewing! I think this is the *second* winter that has passed since I determined that I’d like a pair of corduroy pants… (THIS is exactly what these posts are going to help me do… be more accountable on the things I “talk” about wanting to get done! HA) Anyways… I simply love Sew House Seven’s Free Range Slacks and I plan on getting the pattern cut out this weekend so I am ready to start sewing on Monday! I also really need a couple of “nicer” sweat shirt-style shirts. I have had the Cosmos Sweatshirt pattern for a while now and I have these two lovely pieces of French Terry from Blackbird Fabrics. FOMU (that’s Fear Of Messing Up) has stymied me however. But I did not buy the fabric to just look at it! So I am breaking out from the fear and at least getting them washed and dried today! Then I will plan my next steps… I have not sewn knits is so long. (but thankfully Sewing YouTube has dozens of helpful videos!)
Shaking up: Friday Happy Hours! Boy, have they felt stale as the year ended. So I have been spent a little bit of time finding some new recipes and ideas to “spruce them up” a bit! Phase One starts tonight with a something freshly baked… stay tuned! (And I will be posting an update on IG! What??? LOL)
Speaking of Baking: In November I began making a “bucket” of dough and have been using Zoë François/Jeff Hertzberg 5-minute bread recipe. It keeps is the fridge for 2 weeks and makes it so simple to just pull out a bit of dough to make a loaf of very good bread! I expect this to continue as the dough can be used for pizza as well! It is nice having home made pizza every other week! (A favorite of ours is one with a chicken breast that I have previously cooked and shredded, some artichoke hearts, a drizzle of olive oil and some parmesan cheese!)
Watching: Call the Midwife and loving every second of it! (I also watched the first episode of Around the World in 80-days with DAVID TENNANT… so far, so good…and DAVID TENNANT!) These have been my “companions” while I have been spinning… and they are such very good company!
Spinning… with a plan in mind: I started a “sweater spin” last year and it sort of lost its sparkle. I love the fiber but the sweater part of the spinning has been the issue I think. So I changed the sweater plan… drastically! I knit Romi’s Morinne sweater (Rav link) some years ago and I love the design and fit so much… but the yarn I knit it with… not so much. It pills horribly and now after some years of wear it really looks like hell. This change in sweater has spurred on my spinning… as has the excitement of opening a little bit of fiber each day from Hipstrings Base12 Advent spin… which I thought was just spinning with no plan until yesterday… I think that this will make a lovely Hitchhiker (and I am sure that I will have more than enough yarn to knit a generous one!)
Bandwagon Knitting: I know that I said I was NOT doing any bandwagon knitting this year… but I should know better than to every say never… because on Wednesday night I jumped on the Musselburgh Wagon and began that fiddly little cast on. I am not through all the increases yet so I have not quite gotten to the “mindless knitting” portion of the hat… but soon!
And there you have the things that are currently filling the minutes of my days! What about you? Tell me one thing that you are really excited about!
Have a great weekend everyone and I will see you all back here on Monday!
by Kat | Jan 5, 2022 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
Happy New Year, Dear Unravelers!
In the “Dead Zone” that is the week between Christmas and New Years I did some “retail therapy” with Miss Babs. Why, you ask, could I need more yarn?!? Well, suffice it that it felt right and so I did it! My year of making is going to include a bit of a Gnome-a-thon! Yes, I am joining Imagine Landscapes for her Year of Gnomes! There might have also been a few things that “fell” into my cart from the MDK sale as well. I got notification yesterday that my yarn from Miss Babs is on its way but have heard nothing yet about the MDK extravaganza heading my way! I am hoping that soon every.single.field.guide. will be here. If nothing else, it will be some excellent reading! Ha!
Meanwhile… I did begin the Base12 Advent Spin. Oh my, is this going to be fun. My plan is that I will spin half of the twelve packages on one bobbin, the other half on another bobbin and I will ply them together. I have no clue what is in any of the little packages but the first package (Number Five thanks to the roll of the cute little die) spun up beautifully. I don’t know the exact content of the wee little batt but there is silk… gosh it is lovely! And the tiniest bit of something shiny! (And that color! Yes, I am liking it!)
I also cast on a new knit! Remember that mohair silk from the hat I knit for myself last year? Well… I started a cowl (Thanks to Karen at Pumpkin Sunrise!) So far, so good… sort of. If I look closely at the fabric under very bright lights the pooling is quite horrid, imo. (It’s the mohair that is causing the problem… grrrr!) However, I am telling myself that I don’t think any of the pooling will be at all noticeable when it is around my neck and that is working… kinda, lol. Further, I am reminding myself that when I am wearing it I won’t be looking at it. Anyways, I am loving that the mohair seems much fluffier when paired with the handspun yarn that it did with the Weld. I would kind of like to have this done soonish, as we are finally supposed to get some actual winter-type weather in these parts!
Whew!! That is all the making that I got done since we last spoke!
The reading had highs and lows last week and I have NO finishes at all this week, thus far. I started Still Life but could not get it finished before it was due (yeah I did not start it when I got it… and silly me thought that I would be able to read it in a day or two which was not the case. So I am back on the holds list… sigh.)
In my ears is the very compelling tale about the Sackler’s – Empire of Pain… I might be finished with it next week, but maybe not… it is not a story that I can just “sit and get lost in” kind of book.
I did get one more book finished last year… it was a book from Netgalley and boy was it good! As for the other finish…well you can read below!
State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Oh my… I really, really, really wanted to love this book but boy did it fall flat.
I have read every Louise Penny book and a good number written by Secretary Clinton and separately, I love their voices… together…not so much.
I hated, hated, hated the “Three Pines” mentions… really… they did not work at all for me. I don’t like an abbreviated Gamache.
If you love Three Pines writing, and you love the things Secretary Clinton has written… you probably won’t like this book.
2.5 stars rounded up to three.
An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was the perfect way to end 2021… and I believe this brilliant little book is “must reading” for every single person in America. Really.
Patrisse Cullors gives the reader a road map to be a catalyst for change in the world… and I am not talking radical change (although I think if one applies all of her 12-steps it would radical!) This book seemed to me a series of love letters to yourself and to the people around you that you might interact with every single day.
The only reason I am giving this book 4-stars is because I truly wished it was longer… gosh, it was so good I did not want it to end.
If you want to be a better ally… read this book. But realize that if you do read this book, you will be setting yourself on the path to becoming a better human. And wouldn’t it be a wonder if everyone who reads this book suddenly finds themselves on the same path as everyone else!
I would like to thank Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of this audiobook. I highly recommend!
And that is all I have for today! What about you… any New Year Cast On’s? Any new books? Do tell!
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
by Kat | Jan 3, 2022 | General, Words
Early in 2021… when I really wanted to bail on release…I began to ponder a new word and have had a bit of a running list for most of 2021.
Despite adding words to my list, I persevered with release but once the 4th quarter arrived I began thinking in earnest about what my new word might be for this year and I spent lots of time thinking about all those words on my list.
Unbelievably, not one of them made the cut… I know, it even shocked me because they all have so much potential!
In late November a couple of things happened in my life…my sister’s ongoing issues and the anniversary of my mom’s death – one thing I’d like to solve, the other I’d like to forget – but those are a story for another day. Anyways, those things kept me focused on release for the remainder of the year.
December was so heavy and as a solace I spent lots of time reading poetry and listening others read poetry and the things I discovered were amazing.
First, I stumbled across Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day and a phrase from the poem just jumped off the page and into my head. I had never heard those words before… even though I have read/heard the last sentence of the poem dozens of times… this bit was a revelation to me: Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Wow. Just wow.
Now my intention is not for this to be the most morbid “Hello, New Word” post in history, but true facts… I am 61 years old. If I am blessed to live as long as my nana… I just have 26 more years on this earth. And if I am not that blessed… well, you see the dilemma. So this year I want to begin to really use the things I learned in my Year of Focus and my Year of Intentional Living (and yes, in my Year of Release) and begin to fill my life with the things that matter and stop with the things that don’t matter all.
But what are those things? I think have some ideas, but this year I am going to really try and not waste any time on things that don’t matter. I want to be able to look back and see there was nothing else I should have done because I lived a FULL life to the last moments. I think I am so blessed to have spent such a hard year with release… because release led me to this path.
It is almost as if release said to me… now you are ready… fill yourself up!
(And in case you think my word should have been fill… I wanted to focus more on the result of being full which I hope will help me make my choices of what I “fill” wiser.)
Because being full does not mean just doing all.the.things.
Just before the year ended I listened to an episode of The Slow Down and Ada Limón shared these words of wisdom:
One question that I often get asked is how to overcome writer’s block. And the funny thing is, I overcome it, by not overcoming it. I think it’s OK to not write. I think it’s OK not to talk, not to make, not to create, not to produce, produce, produce. How can we listen to the world if we are always talking to the world?
Wait, what? It’s okay not to talk, not to make, not to create, not to produce, produce, produce?
These words were a bit of a balm for my spirit, let me tell you and coupled with Krista Tippet’s conversation about listening to the silence with Gordon Hempton, I knew I was on the right path. (sometimes I need to have the message hit me in the face multiple times before I get it… thank you, universe for making that happen so brilliantly!)
So I invite you to come along on this journey to see what I will fill myself up with this year and, hopefully, as I am ending 2022 and on the cusp of 2023, I will be on my way to being full of lots of wonderful things!
P.S. If you would like to hear Mary Oliver read her poem, you will find it here!
by Kat | Dec 29, 2021 | General, Unraveled Wednesday
First… my final finish for 2021… Leave Gnome Stone Unturned… aka Gnombleberry and baby Gnewt!
Baby Gnewt is to die for!
That pocket tho’ and even though my duplicate stitched tree does not look like a tree far away… it sorta does close up!
Now onto my Year in Review Post! Ha!
It has been a much calmer year for making. I did not feel any compelling urge to knit.all.the.things. And although I do still have some UFO’s that I had hoped to complete… I didn’t. More on those UFO’s shortly but what I did finish does make quite a nice list:
- I knit 3 pairs of socks, 2 hats, 2 and a half gnomes (the latest of which are Gnombleberry and baby Gnewt – who counts for the half a gnome), 7 sweaters (of which 2 were test knits), 3 shawls (1 of which was a mystery shawl!), and 1 cowl.
- I did some sewing in 2021 as well. I sewed 2 pairs of pants, 1 Esme Tunic, 1 set of coasters, and I did some repair work on existing things in my wardrobe. I also made 7 hats for Winston. AND!! There was One Awesome Advent Calendar for Vivi and Winston!
- 2021 found me to be a sporadic spinner but!! Some of the things I knit this year were made with yarn I spun during the year… which was a first for me. I have quite a stash of handspun but I rarely knit with it. I would like to increase this sort of making in 2022… and I am looking forward to a January Base12 spin (yes it is a month late, but my finger is almost healed and I am planning some spinning time each week in 2022 and that “Advent spin” will be the perfect thing to kickstart a new habit!)
So The Grand Totals: 18 knit items, 13 sewn things, some sewing repairs, and a handful of spinning.
Now for the important bit… what did I learn?
I learned that if I do not have a “need” for an item… it loses its shine. Next year I am committed to not doing any “Ooo, its shiny and everyone is doing it” making. (These account for each and every one of the UFO’s that I have hanging around… I will finish them…hopefully!) The “Ooo, its shiny and everyone is doing making does not fit well with where I want to go next year. I have a closet full of sweaters that I don’t wear. I have more shawls than I can ever wear… even if I wore a different one every day for the remainder of the winter season I don’t think I would exhaust my stash of shawls. I have written a reminder quarterly on my calendar… no new sweaters or shawls…PERIOD!
Socks, though, are a different story… hopefully 2022 is going to find me upping my mending game. I have several pairs that have worn-out heels and I really like the socks so I’d like to find a way to repair them that keeps them wearable (not with a weird looking and highly uncomfortable mended patch.) But if that does not work, then I am not going to feel guilty about tossing them… it will make room for me to make another pair.
The big take away from 2021 is that it is challenging to be a maker with a full closet… so my goal for next year is to expand on my making. Some months ago, I signed up for a series of composition art classes (thanks, Kym!) but to date, I have not done one single thing in any class in the series. However, I have been working on preparing a place to do those classes as well as gathering supplies and I am eager to get started…so you will absolutely see a change in in what is made here at AsKatKnits in 2022.
I hope that whatever you are making in 2022, you will continue to share here with us all… because I think that no matter what you are making sometimes you just need to unravel it a bit… and this is the space for that!
My reading update is a bit more of a challenge, but I think I have figured out the best way to share it all with you.
I set a reading goal at 125 books and I did not make that goal (and I am unlikely to make the goal in the time I have left in 2021) But… I am not upset in the least at only reading 119 books this year because I set the goal to challenge myself… and it was a challenge! However, I think I read better books this year… I gave myself permission to “quit” a book that was just not working for me. This year I added 5 books to the “not for me” category on Goodreads and I experienced not one moment of guilt over any of them.
This year I found 45 books to be worthy of a 5-star rating… so almost 38% of the books I did read this year were very worth reading. And of those 45… here are my favorites:
- Most Memorable: A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, Braiding Sweetgrass, and Finding the Mother Tree
- Life Changing/Mind Opening: Wintering, Four Hundred Souls, The Sum of Us, Good Talk, and What Strange Paradise
- Incredibly Beautiful Writing: Almost anything by Niall Williams, almost anything by Elizabeth Strout, almost anything by Isabel Allende, and everything by Louise Erdrich.
- A Discovery of Poets: Margaret Noodin, Sharon Olds, Elizabeth Alexander, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- Calgon Take Me Away Books: The Gabriel Allon Series
- Read With Us because without them I’d never have read: Shuggie Bain, Unsettled Ground, or Matrix. (and for me, 2021 was the year of discovering how much better a book can be when discussed with friends!)
You can see all my 2021 books here. Aside from the Read With Us category, I limited my highlighting books that got a 5-star rating but as you can see there were a good number (49) of 4-star books as well!
The good thing about so many of these books was that they were suggestions that I got from all of you! And I really hope that we continue to inspire each other with good books to read in 2022.
As always, if you wrote a post to share please leave your link below and thank you!
I will be back with you all next year! I wish you all a very safe and Happy New Year!
by Kat | Dec 28, 2021 | General, Words
I spent December as I began the year…in a struggle with this word.
But rather than the struggle of unpacking what needed to be released, the struggle this month is in the packing away of release.
Because I think release is not a word I can just pack away and move on from… instead (and despite how much it pains me to say this) release is a word I will carry with me as I go forward into 2022 because I don’t think my work with it is quite finished yet.
However, I am not the same woman who unpacked all the things that needed released, sorted, and tucked safely away. Thanks to this very hard year of work… I stand on the cusp of a New Year stronger and more resilient than I ever imagined myself to be.
Despite my struggle against it… release has helped me move onto a new path and led me to the word I will carry in 2022. I am not sharing that word quite yet… I still have a few days to spend tidying up release.
I really want to thank Carolyn for hosting us this year… and more importantly, for sharing monthly worksheets that truly aided me in my journey. Sometimes, all I could do was sit with those worksheets… and in those moments I was so grateful for her insight as to what we (I) might need.
Thanks to you, Gentle Readers, for coming along on this journey with me this year. Your kind comments of encouragement have helped me along the way… I am profoundly grateful for each of you as well!
by Kat | Dec 27, 2021 | General, In This Moment, Poetry
Happy Birthday to me! Today begins my 61st year! 61 years brings lots of retrospection and thinking about birthdays of long ago. When I was a child, it almost always seemed to snow on my birthday and I loved it so much! I have also been thinking about Christmas Vacation birthdays. That’s right…one of the benefits of having your birthday 2 days after Christmas is that you never have school… but that is one of the detriments as well. Sometimes it would have been nice to be in school on my birthday… and even better, it would have been so fun having a snow day!
I won’t see any snow today (it’s pouring down rain…sigh) but thankfully Billy Collins can conjure up a Snow Day for me!
I hope you all enjoy a bit of a Snow Day today (even if there is no physical snow!) I will see you back here tomorrow with an update on my word!
Snow Day
BY BILLY COLLINS
Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.
In a while, I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch
sending a cold shower down on us both.
But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news
that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed.
the All Aboard Children’s School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with—some will be delighted to hear—
the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and—clap your hands—the Peanuts Play School.
So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.
And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.
Billy Collins, “Snow Day” from Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (New York: Random House, 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of Sll/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc.
