A Snow So Wide

Whose prints these are across the snow I cannot say; I do not know. But journeying this path alone With silence on the heart like stone, I hope that I can overtake Him traveling through wind and flake, A lonely shadow in a night So brittle that it snaps with white Where fir and spruce and alder bend Beneath the fingers of the wind.

I must catch him if I can And speak a word or two. No man Has eyes enough to witness all This blinding rush of petal-fall— A snow so deep, a snow so wide It takes a county in its stride, Making a heaven where none was Of cattle lanes and meadow grass— And tell it clearly, eye to eye, Without his word being called a lie.

I'll need him in a time or two To bear me out tonight was true: The smallest flake knowing where to go, This music of my feet on snow, And pines and firs along the way Shining there as proud as day; Each cabin white and glittering As if inside there slept a king. And overhead, through wind and flake, A word that makes the silence break, A voice I knew I’d never hear, But speaking soft and crystal-clear.