Glory of the Snow

Winter stuck around too long this year, or maybe an especially wintery winter made it seem that way. Either way, it is only now, nearly late April, that we are starting to see some early spring bloomers. Chionodoxa is one of those flowers. It is also known by the name Glory of the Snow for its ability to bloom and delight even when the landscape remains snow-covered.

Glory of the Snow blooming in my garden

I have a good few weeks of poetry production, and I wanted to keep my streak going, so I challenged myself to write a poem about this small flower.

In Greek, chion means snow and
doxa means glory

When inspiration failed to strike and I was at a loss as to where to begin, I decided that format would dictate the process. I decided to write an acrostic poem to speed things along. The first letter of each line of the poem spells something new when read vertically. This ended up being harder than I thought. I spent a lot of time thing of words that begin with "N" or "O".  There aren't as many as you might think. This poem took a while, and I put it away for days at a time. I think the final product turned out okay.

Glory of the Snow
Grandeur waits beneath the snow

Latent until the thaw

Opportune blue tableau

Renders muzzled winter's maw

Yielding to aurora's balm

Opens the cobalt flower

Fabled strength, resilience, calm

Temper winter's power

Hale floral star

Elicit spring's potential

Sing your sweet serenade

Navy veil gently billow

On earth's frosted mantle

Wasting not a chance to sway

Delightful!

Glory of the Snow is a prolific self-seeder. It will multiply and naturalize. For now, it is not considered an invasive plant, and I am glad for that. If I had to yank it out, I would miss the colour it brings to the early springtime garden.

Happy Gardening!