Winter Poem

once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower



Nikki Giovanni, “Winter Poem” from The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni. Copyright © 1996 by Nikki Giovanni. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publisher.