Themes :
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.

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
  Chiyo-ni, Fukuda without a voice
  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
  Walters, Dorothy After
  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
Wine