The original plan was to hike Mount Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado, on Tuesday, May 19th. Unfortunately, rather than pristine hiking conditions, we were given a foot of snow and several major blizzards throughout the course of the day. Instead, we chose to ski Arapahoe Basin (A-Basin). A-Basin is situated at approximately 13,000 feet, and even with new snow, the skiing was still challenging. The poems of this day are inspired by the snow-laden nature, along with several experiences on the mountain.
Glasses is a pantoum, following the line order of 1234 2546 5768 7183. This particular poem is inspired by our final run of the day, from summit to base. The conditions were whiteout, which means that the blizzard around obscures light and it is very hard to see. So hard, in fact, that both my goggles and glasses failed to provide any visual aid as we hurtled down the mountain in an attempt to out race an incoming storm.
May, A La Mode is a tanka, a Japanese form very similar to the haiku. The syllables per line proceed as follows: 57577. This poem is inspired by the effects of snow on a May Colorado day. The pine trees were iced, and the roads were contrasts between brown mud and white snow. finally, several of the blizzards that day provided snow in the form of ice spheres, rather than crystalline flakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment