Saturday, April 21, 2012

Snow is for Snow Statues:


This is a tribute to my mother who loved to sculpt snow statues.  In the winter, if the snow was just right, on Sunday, after working all week, she would sculpt snow statues.  My sister and I wished she were like other mothers who did "normal" things because sometimes she sculpted nude statues.  "Please put clothes on them,"  we would beg her, but she followed her own muse and made ephemeral statues made of snow.  Often there would be a theme:  Christmas, a creche; Valentine's Day, lovers holding hands behind a tree; and Easter bunnies.  The lover theme she did every year on Valentine's day; first holding hands, the following year presenting a Valentine's heart, and finally, the gentleman on his knee proposing.  The neighbors loved it and occasionally photographs of her work appeared in the paper.  I wrote this poem many years after her death.  The photograph inspired it.
                                        
                                                Snow Statues
     Smiling into the camera,
     my hands resting on my
     little sister's shoulders


     My mother asking us to smile
     as we squinted into the sun.


     She wanted to take 
     a picture of her creations,
     the three of us.


     I remember how she loved
     being outdoors,
     sculpting those statues,
     so many of them,
     so many different Sundays.


     As she worked, she and 
     Michelangelo 
     shared the same joy,
     as she sculpted, molding
     the snow into a thing of beauty.


     All those trillions of snowflakes
     transformed into art 
     and for a few hours,
     she forgot the pain
     inside the house.

27 comments:

  1. This is so so beautiful. A wonderful tribute to your mother.

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  2. That statue is amazing. It's the kind of thing I'd envision but which would never turn out like that. Very talented.

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    1. I think we are all creative, but in different ways. I think it is sad that many schools have eliminated music,
      art, wood shop to focus on passing tests. Thanks, Annalisa

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  3. Your mom sculpted snow and you sculpt words.
    Thanks for dropping in on thefeatherednest.

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  4. Thank you jnana, Annalisa, Delores, and CQ. I am becoming very sentimental in my later years, I will blame it on the A-Z Challenge. From now on, more up-beat posts.

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  5. lovely post. haunting ending.

    xxo
    MOV

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  6. Beautiful poem. Also, the snow sculptures are cool. I didn't know you could do that with snow. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. How wonderful to have such a clever mother. Great poem too. Happy memories for you.

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  8. Thank you, MOV, Jessica, and Jo. If you google Harbin, China, Ice Festival, you will see some amazing sculptures.

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  9. Wow! What a talent. And to put that time and effort into something that would melt away. That's incredible. Thank goodness someone took pictures.

    Lee
    A Few Words
    An A to Z Co-host blog
    My Main blog is Tossing It Out

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    1. Just think how talented your parents were, Lee and what they and you did was ephemeral too. That is what is so special about live performances; they also are one of a kind, never really repeated the same way; they melt away.

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  10. A beautiful poem and a wonderful tribute to your mother.
    Your comment that "My sister and I wished she were like other mothers who did "normal" things" reminded me of author Maya Ng's similar wish. Her mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, (who loved the moon, along with everything about the world)would often wake up Maya at midnight to have her look at the moon.
    http://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com Theme: A World of Crime

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    1. I just wish she could read this now; she died of pancreatic cancer when she was 59. Wouldn't that be magical to remember the moon that way? My thing is Orion's Belt, which I can see when I cannot sleep at night and go out on the deck and there it is in the starry sky.

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  11. I've never read anything more fabulous about anybody than this - a mother who carves beautiful snow sculptures for different occasions (and a daughter who appreciates, via her prose, how rare an fantastic a thing this is). You've inspired, you have. Perhaps I'll dazzle my own children some day with sculptures made of snow.

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  12. Cathy, you dazzle your children every day but they won't tell you that until they are all grown up and you are sitting around, perhaps with your grandchildren also and your grown son or daughter says, "Remember Mom when you did. . .."

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  13. What a beautiful tribute to a very talented Mother! Just stopping by from the Challenge to say hello...I love your header photo...
    Http://4ambassadorsofchrist.blogspot.com

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  14. WOW, your mother must have been very talented. We don't get to see snow statues down in FL :(

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  15. Heather, what about sand sculpture?

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  16. wow. beautiful poem. =)

    AtoZer!
    prose-spective.blogspot.com

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  17. I hope you have many pictures of her beautiful sculptures. Artistry craves a canvas, nice that hers was snow.

    The poem was a sweet way to remember the moments captured in her hands, and your heart.

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    1. We do have black and white pictures and my sister and I will create a scrapbook of the statues to give to our boys, thanks to the comments on this blog. We never really seriously thought about what we really had. Thanks, Rain.

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  18. this is the coolest post ever. That snow sculpture is fantastic and such a nice poem to add to the memory. Love this post

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  19. Joanne, wish our mother could read the comments, but we will share more with our family.

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  20. What a cool woman (no pun intended) your Mom was. She had the guts to be herself. -Sage

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