The Prominent Snag

-- again
the bare brush of
the half-broken
and already written of
tree stands alone
upon its battered
hummock --

Above
among the shufflings
of the distant
cloud-rifts
vaporously
opens the unmoving
blue


Tree and Sky, by William Carlos Williams


Yesterday, after a difficult morning, the wind and rain howled and lashed the house all night long. I've been listening to audiobooks of the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian - stories of the royal navy during the Napoleonic Wars - so in my sleepy mind the house was creaking like the timbers of a large wooden ship. It didn't feel snug as usual, as if maybe the house could be swallowed up by heavy surf. This did not make for the most restful sleep.

It was still blowing and rainy in the morning on my way into work. The storm melted and scoured away most of the snow and ice. My other photos were all of deep ruts in the muddy driveway, sand that had been spread on the roads washing away into the curbsides like rippled sand at the beach, and storm drains only half covered in ice filling up with melt water. Those images still feel like more honest depictions of the day.

But, since I have made it through the week, and am now looking at a week of vacation stretching out before me, I decided to go with this image of the Prominent Snag we can see from the windows of the house. After all the power outages and debris blown down along the roadsides, it's nice to see it still standing.