Snow Maps By Nasa And Their Inversions Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

can such a thing be seen that to me is too

delicate to measure, the migrations of snow

oh but on whose wings the ruby glinting of



a stray particle of light,


the quality of the glazing I want to follow the snow map

in my dream but it keeps on melting singing of other things

than following


surging from the unexpected clouds stray angels in the picture

upside down

in perhaps a Midwestern air stream, little town or over French valleys

by now, coating the silver Loire.


making mischief in Moscow over Cyrillic domes

the many coloured

is it that far from home. or are snow maps


what children made in the ice barely crusted

what we made on winter saturdays powdered sugar dusted

only just now coming into view


and do those kingdoms show a propulsion toward Spring

the return of birds and birdsong the return of everything

we thought we had lost


before there were snow maps and the silver treasure

everywhere confounding us.

the sun warming, the rose leaves. the gardens


frozen in Time.


mary angela douglas 15 may 2020


The title of this poem is: "SNOW MAPS BY NASA AND THEIR INVERSIONS." it is a poem of pure imagination, not a scientific treatise. And if you think that science was developed without a poetic imagination you may know how to think, but you don't know how to dream. Yet you still could find out how to by coincidence or synchronicity or by sometimes, not listening to your teachers at all. Or to the voice in your head that tells you what other people expect you to say next in the conversation. Beautiful intrusions from other realms should be welcome I think, like the angels in scripture that we may entertain, as the Good Book Says: "unaware". This is a comment I wrote at the end of this poem I posted on a facebook entry by NASA in reply to many people who didnt understand WHY I was talking poetically on a scientific page. ON MAY 15 2020.The information from NASA on the snow maps inspired my poem in the first place.