Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World

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Snow

Snow appears in the sacred poetry of many traditions, particularly the Buddhist poetry of East Asia. It can imply a few things, depending on the context.

When the difficulties and coldness and enforced internalization of winter are emphasized, snow can represent the struggles of spiritual practice that precede the spiritual awakening of spring.

When the silence that settles upon the world in snow is emphasized, it can represent the perfect stillness of mind that occurs in true meditation.

When the quality of covering or engulfing all things in a uniform whiteness is highlighted, snow is a metaphorical reference to the light that shines through everything, the light one perceives when the mind awakens.

See also

	Light
	Melting
	Silence
	Spring Blossom
	Water

Poems with the theme of Snow

	Basho, Matsuo Come, let's go
	Basho, Matsuo This snowy morning
	Chinook (Anonymous) Teach us, and show us the Way
	Crashaw, Richard To the Name above every Name, the Name of Jesus
	Dickinson, Emily I taste a liquor never brewed
	Dickinson, Emily Of whom so dear
	Dogen, Eihei The Western Patriarch's doctrine is transplanted!
	Dogen, Eihei Worship
	Herbert, George The Flower
	Hung-chih Cheng-chueh Silently and serenely one forgets all words;
	Ikkyu (Sojun, Ikkyu) Every day, priests minutely examine the Law
	Issa, Kobayashi mountain temple
	Khayyam, Omar [14] The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
	Maharshi, Ramana The Marital Garland of Letters
	Milosz, Czeslaw This Only
	Mipham Rinpoche, Sakyong Snow Fell Twice, The Sun Always Shone
	Po Chu-i Autumn's Cold
	Reninger, Elizabeth Vision
	Rosenstock, Gabriel (9) Snow on the foothills (from Year of the Goddess)
	Rumi, Mevlana Jelaluddin How long will you say, "I will conquer the whole world
	Ryokan This world
	Snyder, Gary At Tower Peak
	Soseki, Muso Buddha's Satori
	Soseki, Muso Snow Garden
	Stevens, Wallace Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
	Teasdale, Sara I Am Not Yours
	Tennyson, Alfred St. Agnes' Eve
	Theophan the Recluse Descend from your head into your heart
	Whitman, Walt [8] The little one sleeps in its cradle (from Song of Myself)
	Wu Men (Hui-k'ai) Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn
	Yannai The Celestial Fire

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Poetry Chaikhana Sacred Poetry from Around the World

Snow

Poetry Chaikhana
Sacred Poetry from Around the World