Nine foot of snow later and out into the great white expanse I went! Sun was shining and it felt amazing to be out, busting trail on the snowshoes after three weeks of storms. I witnessed something for the first time in 25 years of Tahoe living, not just one, but a meadow of snow devils, one after the other. It was amazing to watch and I felt like I had dropped into a playful other world. Upon arriving home, I researched the occurrence and discovered that snow devils are rare, needing a variety of perfect conditions to materialize. Their sighting is worthy of a poem....
©2019 Karla Johnston, InnerConstellation.com
Down by the icy river
swirls of powder dance
across a blanketed, sugary meadow,
mingle, join,
are spirited...up, up, up and away,
in spiraling, widening circles
to culminate and then...
fly apart in a spray of diamonds,
glitter and disappear into blue, blue sky.
I stand in slack-jaw-wonder,
a witness to winter’s dance of beauty
on a frozen February day.
swirls of powder dance
across a blanketed, sugary meadow,
mingle, join,
are spirited...up, up, up and away,
in spiraling, widening circles
to culminate and then...
fly apart in a spray of diamonds,
glitter and disappear into blue, blue sky.
I stand in slack-jaw-wonder,
a witness to winter’s dance of beauty
on a frozen February day.