snow on the kansas plains
Snow on the Kansas Plains – Video
I have been to these sites many times and am amazed at how even a little snow transforms and re-writes the landscape. I notice details that I previously did not see in other seasons, or even in the past few weeks. I hope that you are able to see some of the beautiful Kansas Plains landscapes and that you enjoy this video.
Emily Dickinson says it well in this poem, “It Sifts from Leaden Sieves.”
This poem is all about how the snow settles in the landscape, re-writes the roads and fences.
I adore her metaphors: the snow is ‘alabaster wool’ and like ‘fleeces’, a ‘crystal veil’ coating the roads and the fences.
The snow certainly gives us a new perspective on the prairie.
snow on the kansas plains
It Sifts from Leaden Sieves
by Emily Dickinson
It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –
It makes an even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain –
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again –
It reaches to the Fence –
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces –
It deals Celestial Vail
To Stump, and Stack – and Stem –
A Summer’s empty Room –
Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them –
It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen –
Then stills it’s Artisans – like Ghosts –
Denying they have been –
Dickinson, E. and Franklin, R. (1998). The poems of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
For more beautiful landscapes check out my post, “Fences.”