Cloudless Snowfall by Franz Wright
Cloudless Snowfall
Franz WrightGreat big flakes like white ashes
at nightfall descending
abruptly everywhere
and vanishing
in this hand like the host
on somebody’s put-out tongue, she
turns the crucifix over
to me, still warm
from her touch two years later
and thank you,
I say all alone—
Vast whisp-whisp of wingbeats
awakens me and I look up
at a minute-long string of black geese
following low past the moon the white
course of the snow-covered river and
by the way thank You for
keeping Your face hidden, I
can hardly bear the beauty of this world.
SELECTED BY TODD DILLARD
There’s no such thing as a perfect image that remains only an image. Such is the beginning, and the end, of “Cloudless Snowfall,” wherein Wright—who struggled often with homelessness, who spent nights outside in the cold—begins with the image of snow falling out of a sky as clear as God’s eye and, after making it ash, making snow both evaporate and Eucharist, ends with with the lines:
“…I / can hardly bear the beauty of this world.”
Snow—snow! Vanishing into upturned palms—something so small, and a gesture like the opposite of hands clasped for prayer—but then we end with weight.
See how the narrator, by trying to hold that which vanishes, cannot bear the beauty of the world?
See how the image prepared us, shaped us into a door, which the poem opens?
And we warm ourselves by the touch of someone gone for years, we measure time with a minute hand made from a flock of “black geese,” we recognize much of what is hidden is in plain view, if only we stopped to witness it.
I love this poem, and return to it often.
I read it, and I remember “rend” is tucked inside of “render.”
ABOUT TODD DILLARD
Todd Dillard’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous journals, including: Threepenny Review, American Poetry Review, Southern Review, Pleiades, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. His debut collection Ways We Vanish (Okay Donkey Press) was a finalist for the 2021 Balcones Poetry Award, and his chapbook Ragnarok at the Father-Daughter Dance was published by Variant Literature in 2024. Originally from Houston, Texas, Todd Dillard now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife and two children, where he works at a children’s hospital as a writer and editor.
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Walking to Martha's Vineyard by Franz Wright, published by Knopf, 2003. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“In this radiant new collection, Franz Wright shares his regard for life in all its forms and his belief in the promise of blessing and renewal. As he watches the “Resurrection of the little apple tree outside / my window,” he shakes off his fear of mortality, concluding “what death . . . There is only / mine / or yours,– / but the world / will be filled with the living.” In prayerlike poems he invokes the one “who spoke the world / into being” and celebrates a dazzling universe–snowflakes descending at nightfall, the intense yellow petals of the September sunflower, the planet adrift in a blizzard of stars, the simple mystery of loving other people. As Wright overcomes a natural tendency toward loneliness and isolation, he gives voice to his hope for “the only animal that commits suicide,” and, to our deep pleasure, he arrives at a place of gratitude that is grounded in the earth and its moods.” (Source)
ABOUT FRANZ WRIGHT
Franz Wright was born in Vienna, Austria and grew up in the Northwest, the Midwest, and California. He earned a BA from Oberlin College in 1977. His collections of poetry include The Beforelife (2001); God’s Silence (2006); Walking to Martha’s Vineyard, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004; Wheeling Motel (2009); Kindertotenwald (2011); and F (2013). He taught at Emerson College and other universities, worked in mental health clinics, and volunteered at a center for grieving children.… (more)
Read more poems by Franz Wright • Find books by this poet on Amazon • Bookshop • Or view my library
ENDNOTES
- This is Day 20 of Poems We Carry, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Read A Little Poetry—a living archive I’ve nurtured for two decades. For this milestone series, I invited writers I deeply admire to share poems that have meant something to them over time.
- Explore other works in pursuit of: grace • solitude • beauty • Or browse the index
- If this work resonates with you, please consider supporting the archive. Thank you for reading.
