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First snow, it came early this morning
So I’m up and out of bed
Visions of a real slow goin’
Start runnin’ through my head
First snow, there ain’t nothing like
The sudden change that winter brings
But it looks so pretty that it makes me want to sing…
La la la la la, the sky is falling down
La la la la la, and sticking to the ground
La la la la la, what a change that winter brings
I’ll stoke my stove and see you in the spring
White limbs in a magic forest
That surrounds me as I drive
Stillness, that gentle feelin’
Makes me glad that I’m up and alive
First snow, there ain’t nothin’ like
The sudden change that winter brings
And in the silence I can hear my heart begin to sing…
La la la la la, the sky is falling down
La la la la la, and sticking to the ground
La la la la la, what a change that winter brings
I’ll stoke my stove and see you in the spring
• michael mercer, 1982
The Internet Monk Archives 
I feel your pain. Born and raised in the Northeast.
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I connect with snow. It is part of my seasonal rythym. In Houston, I am a fish out of water. Especially when we have to drive past countless strip malls selling stuff we really could do without — all open 24/7 on the way to Midnight mass on Christmas Eve. It’s like a balloon that is pretty on the outside but so much emptiness inside. This cultural chaos at 60 mph brings me down. I miss the days when only the most intrepid shoppers would be out and we would drive through a foot of new snow just to warm up in church as we looked forward to ushering in the baby King. I know Joseph and Mary did not have the same ambient, but call it Heimweh; it’s an important way I connected to the story and I miss it.
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One thing I miss is walking back from Christmas Eve service in fresh new-fallen snow. Now in Houston, they predict upper 70s. I miss that quiet solitude when I wonder as I wandered out under the sky.
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Yay ! ! !
love those ‘sky bears’
send them our way, Dana, please !!!
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oh Vermont, the skiiing 🙂
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long time no snows come
hopeful for the Christmas snow
to cover our land
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Oh it snowed last night, snowed last night!
The sky bears had a pillow fight:
They tore up every cloud in sight and tossed down all the feathers white!
Oh it snowed last night, snowed last night!
From the California State Series second grade music book. Yes, when I was in elementary school every child was issued a half-inch-thick, hardback book full of songs, every year. Sigh.
Dana
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Oh yes, but never recorded, at least in any way that’s worth sharing.
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Aaaahh! Beautiful Vermont. Plenty of time there to write songs in the winter. That first good snow appears like a warm, cozy, cotton blanket. Especially from the window with, perhaps, a woodstove going. I’ve been subject to sensory deprivation living in Texas for the last 30 years. There’s nothing here called the first snow. Here it’s some snow, any snow….THE snow.
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Did you ever put the words to a melody?
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Those are lyrics from a song I wrote back in my Vermont days.
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As someone who grew up in the midwest but for the last two decades has lived in the south, these beautiful pictures bring back many wonderful memories.
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I’m guessing you write it as a song? Where were you at the time?
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“If I had my way, we wouldn’t see grass from October till May.” – Calvin (and Hobbes)
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our first snow — it came
and went in a single day —
like a drop of rain
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+1
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beautiful photos, yes
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Great photos. They do well striking the mood of First Snow and bringing back a lot of memories. Fun poem also.
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