Snow falling on this dirty old town
Covers up these dirty old streets
Bringing this big city insanity to an end for a while ...

Meanwhile, the band plays on.

"There's a blizzard out there, in case you guys haven't noticed!"
The singer says;

The audience responds,
"Yeah, man! There's all this white shit out there!"

But they've got it wrong
The shit's what's being covered up
By the snow ...

It's really coming down –
A whiteout –
As I walk home from the Hungry Elephant,
Or is it the Cruel Eye?
Forgetting the midterm I have to write later this morning
In the sublime joy of the moment;
Even the junkies trying to sell me drugs on Hastings Street
Are entranced by the wonder of it all;
They're less intense, relaxed and friendly.
A Fallen Angel, junky or hooker,
Maybe just another homeless person
Trying to survive in the dark alleys
Behind the bright city lights,
Asks me if I can spare a looney.
I give her my last one
And she walks with me down Hastings Street,
Chatting amiably
Clearly delighted
To have someone to talk to,
To share this moment with.
What is it about snow falling
That makes us feel so alive
In the moment
Entranced with wonder
At this mundane event? –
This lost child of the streets
And every kid in school looking out the window
"It's snowing!?"
And seeing those big white flakes start coming down
So that the whole class must dash to the back of the classroom
To have a look
To their teacher's dismay –
She has lost control
For that brief interval
Between the first child seeing snowflakes
And her entire class crowding the windows
To watch them coming down.

That first fall of snow
Telling us
That Winter
Has finally arrived.

I love it down here
Where I feel at home, at last
For the first time since I came back to this strange land called Canada –
Despite the harsh reality of poverty and despair
There's a desperate honesty that's lacking on the other side of town
Where the doctors and lawyers and developers live –
The crême de la crême
Of Vancouver Society –
Here is where I belong
Encapsulated
Within the City's urban depths

And, the snow –
I've always loved you
Soft sweet snow falling all around
Rustling softly
As you tickle my cheeks;
You make everything -
so ... Pretty!

In Montreal, I would shovel snow
In the velvet dark of a winter’s night,
No one else around
Just the soft gentle rustle of falling snow
Like a Zen koan;
Within half an hour
I'ld be stripped down to a T-shirt
Even though it was ten below,
Forever shovelling snow ...

Snow, it glitters in rainbow hues
Under the street lamps,
A halo of sparkling particles
Centred around the beam's radiant glow
Spreading outwards from its source.

Snow, glittering on the sidewalks
In the daytime;
When the sun shines
It almost blinds
A crystalline dazzle of polar light
Like cold fire ...

I hope the weather turns cold
And the snow sticks around for a while
Like an old friend from far away
Who turns up on your doorstep
Looking for a place to stay
While he's in town
Just passing through.
Strathcona, Vancouver Jan/Feb, 1995