December 29, 2025
Dear Aunt Mabel,
I've heard people say that we're going to have a hard winter here in the U.S. I don't know if that prediction will prove true, but it's not quite January, and many regions have already experienced near-record-breaking snowfall and heavy winds. Our Upper Peninsula has already had over four feet of snow, and almost half of it was during the week of Thanksgiving! It reminds me of the snowstorm you wrote about in February of 1936, so I wanted to share it with the creators and readers of this platform called "Buy Me a Coffee."
Sincerely,
Mary Margaret
The Snow Storm
In the early hours of morning,
Just before the break of day,
The snow had been softly falling
Till it whitened a world of gray.
Then as the day grew lighter,
The wind had begun to blow,
Driving faster and faster
The thickly falling snow.
The fairy flakes fell thicker.
Like down from a white-winged swan,
Till caught by the gales of winter
And hurled upon the earth anon.
They had filled the empty spaces
With a cloud of wondrous white,
Shrouding unsightly places
With a blanket soft and light.
They changed the dirty, smoky park
To a land all bright and clean
And covered every sordid mark
That they might no more be seen.
The drifts piled high and higher
As the snow continued to fall,
Covering each corpse of autumn’s flower
With a beautiful fleecy pall.
The sun went down on a world of white;
On a veritable fairy land.
Each roof and tree like a mountain of light
Had its part in the picture grand.
Then, during the long hours of night
The wind had veered to the east.
And the icy gales had come with the light
Which sank into rest at last.
ʼTwas then that the rain had begun to fall.
It drizzled throughout the night,
Marring the glistening beauty of all
Those mounds of snowy white.
When morning came and we looked again,
To feast our eyes on beauty rare,
The sight that met our vision then
Was not a view divinely fair.
~ February 15, 2023