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Cryology or the Study of Snow
they say that when
wilson a. bentley from montana
wasn’t playing
the clarinet he would grab
his camera and go
out into the snow
to capture snowflake after snowflake
in his attentive lens
recording them before they reverted
to drops of half-frozen water
and so revealing feathers
or many-pointed stars
or branching tree-like
mosaics or sparkling
constructs with disjointed frosted arms
and columns goblets even pyramids
countless crystalline forms
wilson a. bentley was nicknamed
flakey by his neighbours
they laughed at him behind his back
but needed him and his clarinet
for their concerts in church
they thought it was
ridiculous for him to try and hold on
to what disappears and
his obsession
made him a bit odd
what they didn’t know
was
that he not only
saw the flakes but heard them
like the notes played
on a clarinet
English translation by Paul Archer of Sabine Schiffner's Kryologie (die lehre vom schnee) from her book of poems: Dschinn.
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