Welcome to this month’s poetry classroom, with poet and professor Julie L. Moore. We invite you to respond to the poems we’ll share here—their forms, images, sounds, meanings, surprises—ask questions of Julie and each other, and write your own poems along the way.
Universe
Did you know that if you stand in your yard
just after dusk
lifting your eyes like a prayer
to the heavens
& peer into snow falling
toward you,
your senses will swirl
& you can pretend, well enough,
that you are in another
world—you & the weightless
pearls dropping
from the sky’s broken neck-
lace—& you will spin
in orbit somewhere else
anywhere but here
in the universe of pain?
Photo by Willingham Lindquist. Used with permission. Poem by Julie L. Moore, author of Particular Scandals
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Discussion Questions:
1. The poem asks if you know this about staring into falling snow. Do you?
2. Note that the poet uses the & sign instead of the word “and.” What do you think about this choice? Would the poem feel different if the actual word had been used?
3. The line breaks in this poem are notable. Do you have any favorites? Tell us why.
Browse poets and poems
Browse more attentiveness poems
Browse more nature poems
- Journey into Poetry: Julie L. Moore - October 16, 2013
- Poetry Classroom: Nuthatch - July 29, 2013
- Poetry Classroom: Universe - July 22, 2013
Elizabeth W. Marshall says
I know the feeling of snow abstractly that way, not specifically. It mutes the world. Cleans it up. Softens and whitens and gives it a fresh start. Dulls and dampens sharp edges. And quiets the loud like the world is rocking a fretful baby to sleep.
The ampersand is graceful like falling snow. Gives movement, visual turns and twists unlike the clunky and.
My favorite line break is weightless pearls dropping. Beautiful visual likening snowflakes to pearls. A first. And such a lovely visual metaphor.
Love this one. And I like that rather than weaving elements of pain and the need to be buffered from suffering throughout the poem, it is light and lovely until the final work is dropped into the word-weaving. PAIN. just clunked down as a final thought.
Thanks you for sharing this. GIft.
Maureen Doallas says
The ampersand reminds me of a figure eight, its line gracefully and visually moving our eye through the line to the word that follows. (I like its use just after “your senses will swirl” and before “spin/ in orbit”, as if showing us visually what those words mean.)
In this poem the symbol’s use also invokes quiet; we can’t hear snow falling, nor can we hear the ampersand if we say this poem aloud.
This poem, to me, holds a lot of emotion. It’s restrained, though, unlike the snow that falls freely. Its containment contrasts with the hugeness of “universe”.
Jesswithpoems says
1. The imagery is clear from the title and the first 4 lines where your mind should start – starring into the snow.
2. I support this choice, I do it as well. Sometimes I feel the “&” symbolic encourages the relationship with the two items – almost like they become one. “And” is universal and not as binding.
3. “pearls dropping
from the sky’s broken neck-” Beautiful. Great moment in the poem.
Mark says
After years and years of reading and writing
it’s plain to see that nothing in poetry is either wrong or right – Only to those who critique it
Neither party will agree with you anyway
Right & wrong
Black & white
John & Mary
Salt & pepper
And & ampersand
I love when the snow falls & it lands
gently on my face
Julie L. Moore says
Thank you for these insightful comments!
Divya Sachdeva says
Interesting line breaks and I liked
the weightless
pearls dropping
line breaks, the pause here gives the reader the space and time to imagine at looking above.
The use of & is visual spinning which is quite related or appropriate to the lines coming forth.
Warrick Mayes says
The poem looks nice the way it is laid out. The line breaks help with this, but can destroy the first read – you have to read it a second time once you’ve realised you need to read on.
I would prefer to see line breaks that come with the end of thought, rather than in the middle of it. This would help the first-time reader, and not deter them or destroy their enjoyment of the poem.
I wrote the following as a 2-line poem, but it could be laid out as follows:
The mirror,
the shop window,
the shimmering lake
Though each
becomes you, your
beauty they cannot take
However, I prefer it like this so that the reader knows where they have to pause, aided by the punctuation:
The mirror, the shop window, the shimmering lake,
Though each becomes you, your beauty they cannot take.