The Snow Man

A good friend of mine recently graduated from Stanford Law School. At graduation, one of her professors spoke. He gave an excellent address, talking primarily about savoring each moment and resisting the temptation to always be looking ahead to the next thing. He also shared the following poem, "The Snow Man." I love poems and the personal way people express their knowledge, beliefs, and experiences. 

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Professor Spaulding Graduation Address 2014

"The Snow Man"

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-tree crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

in the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.