This poem is taken from PN Review 193, Volume 36 Number 5, May - June 2010.
Five Poems
In Memory of the Photographer Wilson ‘Snowflake’ Bentley, Who Died of Pneumonia after Walking through a Blizzard Near Jericho, Vermont, 23 December 1931
Beauty was, for him, cold,
hexagonal, perfect
in all its parts, beheld
once and once only. Locked
beneath his lens, light-spun
and light-refracting, flecked
with coal dust and pollen,
his flakes shone with lunar
loveliness … And we can
see, in these hundred-year-
old prints, plain evidence
of his attention, care,
and chilling confidence:
in the manifold world,
its willed evanescence,
...
Beauty was, for him, cold,
hexagonal, perfect
in all its parts, beheld
once and once only. Locked
beneath his lens, light-spun
and light-refracting, flecked
with coal dust and pollen,
his flakes shone with lunar
loveliness … And we can
see, in these hundred-year-
old prints, plain evidence
of his attention, care,
and chilling confidence:
in the manifold world,
its willed evanescence,
...
The page you have requested is restricted to subscribers only. Please enter your username and password and click on 'Continue'.
If you have forgotten your username and password, please enter the email address you used when you joined. Your login details will then be emailed to the address specified.
If you are not a subscriber and would like to enjoy the 285 issues containing over 11,500 poems, articles, reports, interviews and reviews, why not subscribe to the website today?
If you have forgotten your username and password, please enter the email address you used when you joined. Your login details will then be emailed to the address specified.
If you are not a subscriber and would like to enjoy the 285 issues containing over 11,500 poems, articles, reports, interviews and reviews, why not subscribe to the website today?
