There’s a lamp that won’t light in my poetry room
And children out playing and a big full moon
My man’s barricaded there in his womb
He’ll be coming out soon
I remember when I met him
He blew in like the wind
No one was more beautiful or dangerous than him
He blew through my soul like a tangerine wind
He’ll be coming out soon

I never knew I was built so strong
My heart, my heart is a boat on the sea
I never thought I was built for hurricanes
My heart, my heart is a boat on the sea

Luxury looms on a fog bound day
I’m not alone now and I’m not afraid
I’m clean and I’m free it’s all stripped away
My debts are paid
I wonder if he ever looks down on the sea
And thinks about the time that he spent with me
I know everything’s exactly how it has to be
All’s right with this world

I never knew I was built so strong
My heart, my heart is a boat on the sea
I never thought I was built for hurricanes
My heart, my heart is a boat on the sea

In the cold and the dark, you’re the grace of my heart . . .

Tonight there are no saviors
This night outside my window
Wasn’t anyone’s fault
When the moon rolls over the mountain
You are lost in your dreaming
Where is the wild white rose?
Where is the wild white rose?

I tried to explain it
To someone who was crying
If you were my love
My hands reach for something
Someone that could tell me
Wasn’t anyone’s fault
Wasn’t anyone’s fault

Crosses to bear
My dreams that still burn
With our crosses to bear
And our dreams that still burn

If you were my love
My love
However momentarily
Oh, if I were the one
Who watched over your sleeping
You would never
Have been frightened
At all at all…

“Winter Song” ~Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson~

Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
Bum bum bum bum bum bum
Bum bum bum bum bum bum

This is my winter song to you
The storm is coming soon
It rolls in from the sea

My voice, a beacon in the night
My words will be your light
To carry you to me

Is love alive?
Is love alive?
Is love…

They say that things just cannot grow
Beneath the winter snow
Or so I have been told

They say we’re buried far
Just like a distant star
I simply cannot hold

Is love alive?
Is love alive?
Is love alive?

This is my winter song
December never felt so wrong
‘Cause you’re not where you belong
Inside my arms

Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum
Bum bum bum bum bum bum
Bum bum bum bum bum bum

I still believe in summer days
The seasons always change
And life will find a way

I’ll be your harvester of light
And send it out tonight
So we can start again

Is love alive?
Is love alive?
Is love alive?

This is my winter song
December never felt so wrong
‘Cause you’re not where you belong
Inside my arms

This is my winter song to you
The storm is coming soon
It rolls in from the sea

My love, a beacon in the night
My words will be your light
To carry you to me

Is love alive?

“River” Joni Mitchell

It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on

But it don’t snow here
It stays pretty green
I’m going to make a lot of money
Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on

I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry

He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on

I’m so hard to handle
I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
I wish I had a river I could skate away on

Oh, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye

It’s coming on Christmas
They’re cutting down trees
They’re putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river I could skate away on

Needless to say, I now have cabin fever, and the weather reports are saying more snow on the way. The semester is sheduled to begin on Monday, so if said blizzards occur as predicted, the entire week will be in disarray because we don’t do snow in the South, or maybe I should restate that satement: we don’t know how to do snow in the South. 

With the mountains, many of the roads are steep, curvy, narrow, and dangerous in icy weather, and we don’t have the proper equipment to maintain them during a winter blitz so, believe it or not, when it snows, everything stops and people stay home until it melts.

Being a Southerner at heart with deep Appalachian roots but who was raised “Up North” as we say down here, this was a shock to me when I first moved here at the tender age of seventeen. My first job was at Roses, the only department store in town. When the first snow of the year fell, I went to work and to my surprise almost no one was there, including most of the employees. When I asked where everyone was, the manager replied, ”It snowed.”

I was baffled and must have looked perplexed, and the only thought running through my head was, “So?” But I didn’t say anything and went about my work, enjoying an easy but boring day with very few customers.  

After a few years and a new deplorable job, I decided, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ‘em” and made a resolution to myself that: “If it snows, the good Lord above must think I need a day off, so I’m takin’ it!” From then on, if there was snow on the road in the morning, it was a “Thank You, Lord!” and jammies and hot chocolate for the rest of the day for me!

Now it is a different story though, I’m a college intructor, and I love my job and actually like to go to work. So when it snows, it can mean that I actually can’t get to work since I live about forty miles away. It also messes up the class schedules when some of the students do not come to class due to the weather. So a little snow is okay, but more than a little means potential academic chaos for me. So all I have to say is “Go.Away.Snow! Enough already!”