Snow and Ice J. M. Strother I loved the snow in my younger days And romped in it for a good long while. I disparaged those wracked with fear, Who fret and fume when a North wind blows, And walk in terror of gave missteps. But now it seems that the North wind chills The bones that used to take to hills, And as I shovel my frozen steps, I strive to feel my poor frozen toes. I no longer love this time of year. Yet despite my years, I can still smile When I think back to those younger days.

I guess I never grew up. I am sorely disappointed when the storms pass and leave nothing. Ok, the toes and fingers get cold too quick when I'm playing with the stuff, but I wouldn't trade the snow and ice for warm sand.

I kind of lost my sense of time on l3-l5. On l3 you go into past tense, then on l4 back to present. On l5 you're in the present but apparently still referring to younger days. I think you meant to say: "Who fretted and fumed when the North wind blows, and walked in terror of grave missteps..." Kind of a problem here in completing the fade back. The rest of the poem is clearly in the present and makes me glad I have two others that can shovel the walk and drive instead.

Thanks for the feedback, tjames. I'll have to take another look at it and try and do a little polishing. You can always send them down here to shovel, if they get bored. :-) jon

No thanks I have more than enough of the white stuff to keep them busy. As far as being bored...my gallery will tell you I've been pretty busy been posting almost every day.

Not you bored - the kids. What, snowed in and all. :-) I just took a look at your gallery and you have been busy. I got a good laugh out of Chicken. Louis looks like a real cutie, and Before the Stars is just precious. I found Swept Away a very powerful and emotional piece, at least for me. It recalled memories of Columbia to mind. But my all time favorite of your new ones is Night Walk. I love the rain streaked effect and vivid colors on that one. Great job, man. I guess you guys are all used to the snow up in your neck of the woods. Probably even do fun winter sports type stuff like skiing and skating on occasion. Down here we never get enough snow to be of any use - just annoyance. I need to either move further north to have a real winter or further south to be done with it! jon

I know the martian tripod was supposed to have tentacles, but I just couldn't get them to look right. I've been spending a lot of time on Mars lately looking at photos from the orbiters. A really good site is at: http://www.msss.com Theres 134,000 pictures there. I saw one mesa that looked just like a heart, another that looked like a big "x" in the middle of a circle. (x marks the spot) Riverbeds and huge valleys, mountains that go almost staight up for miles from the canyon floor. Its too bad Chuck Evans hasn't been around for a while he'd probably really get into the shots as well.

Did you ever read the Red-Green-Blue Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson? A lot of people seem to have trouble with it, what with all the technical detail he goes into, but I loved it. I think it's my favorite SF series of all time. If you are into Mars, I highly recommended it. Still see Chuck some over at Vue. Too bad he doesn't hang around here more. jon