Magnolias Draped In Snow

When winter officially comes to the South many of us continue to enjoy a warm Indian Summer for several weeks before the temperatures drop and linger in digits that can make us shiver. Thanksgiving and Christmas can come and go without significant freeze but those of us who were born here know we haven't really escaped.

January and February are our coldest months and there is a possibility that a blanket of icy white snow might settle down around us.

When this happens almost all things stop for awhile. If it is not deemed an emergency, the media advises everyone to stay inside, off the roads and enjoy the beauty. Since it is such a rare occurrence, the smaller communities are not prepared with snowplows and other equipment that is taken for granted in the colder northern climates.

Some visitors think us not wise to allow nature to take it's course but we consider this short-lived situation not worthy of valuable tax dollars. It's an inconvenience to some, a joy to others.

January 25, 2000 was such an occasion for us in North and South Carolina. Snow drifted in overnight without ceasing, covering a treacherous layer of ice. I did not go to bed all night for fear of missing the magnificence of the falling flakes. The dawn of morning sun revealed a landscape glistening with diamond dust. Pine trees and Magnolias were bent under the weight of the ice and new fallen snow. As I sat viewing the scene and following came to mind, which I now share with you.

A sudden cold blanket of icy white covers the South
Disguising the magnificence of magnolias in deceptive tranquility
Abstract music of the night moans forlornly, howled by the wind
High notes are played wildly by sleet raining through trees

A staccato of cracking limbs shatters the quiet
Leaving powerless victims cold, fearful of impending despair
Unprepared for the wrath from this mother of nature
Lessons learned from previous tutelage are woefully remembered
While prayers waft heavenward in hope of reprieve

Tomorrows dawn in Dixie will awaken a mystified child
Who will stare wide-eyed through frosted glass in bewilderment and glee
At a landscape smothered in snowdrifts of shimmering white
Snow laden limbs of Magnolias will hang, some splintered, appearing lifeless
Draped beneath an apparent death grip of frozen veneer
But subtly, they merely await 
Those first rays of that certain warm Southern sunlight
When thawing veins of new growth will
Burst into fragrant white blossoms of Spring

I must extend a special "thank you" to Bill Leslie of WRAL television in Raleigh, North Carolina for reading this poem during his coverage of the winter storm on January 26, 2000.