{"id":267215,"date":"2017-12-28T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=267215"},"modified":"2017-12-28T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T20:00:00","slug":"solstice-snowflake-snowcone-senior-sonnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/solstice-snowflake-snowcone-senior-sonnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Solstice: A snowflake, a Snowcone, a senior sonnet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Winter solstice, when the Earth is tilted on its axis the furthest away from the sun, was Dec. 21,\u00a02017. It marked the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere. That brings cold and freezing weather to northern latitudes. We have none of that at 15 degrees north latitude in Micronesia We do, however, have snow in the CNMI. Sometimes it is actually flown in from Japan. Sometimes we eat it in Snowcones!<\/em><br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>A Winter Solstice Wail<\/strong><br \/>\nTubas bemoan winter\u2019s cold cash loan<br \/>\nthey drone and bleat as fingers shrink<br \/>\nand stuck valves clink from loss of heat<br \/>\nfrom the gray sky no sound<br \/>\non the playground a blue jay feather falls<br \/>\nwhen robins return pulling up worms<br \/>\nI yearn once again for snowballs<br \/>\nthe sun barely up icy water in a cup<br \/>\nat a solstice wake \u00a0&#8211; on my runny nose<br \/>\nwith most of me froze rests a snowflake.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>Snowcone!<\/strong><br \/>\nI would build that cone in air<br \/>\nthat slushy cone those mounds of ice<br \/>\nand all who slurped would taste it there<br \/>\nand all would shout, Snowcone! Shave ice!<br \/>\nits melting juicy colors rare<br \/>\npiled in shaved mounds so nice<br \/>\nso close your eyes and taste with joy<br \/>\nsummer delights for girl and boy<br \/>\ndessert in Polar Paradise.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>Sonnet 81 <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>(after Sonnet 18 by W. Shakespeare, \u201cShall I compare thee to a summer\u2019s day\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Shall I compare thee to a winter worn thin<br \/>\nyour hair grows snowy as you grow old<br \/>\ncoughing winds put frost on the pumpkin<br \/>\nand winter\u2019s lions freeze out in the cold<br \/>\nsometimes too fast Jack Frost\u2019s blanket spreads<br \/>\nand often are the houses and windows covered<br \/>\nfield after field of wildflowers found dead<br \/>\nby freezing or fresh white snow has smothered<br \/>\nbut thy winter of discontent will pass<br \/>\nas February\u2019s groundhog valentine melts<br \/>\nas March winds uncover tufts of grass<br \/>\nwhen mother fries up a pan of fresh smelts<br \/>\nso short as winter solstice or crossing of the letter \u2018t\u2019<br \/>\nshort winter days will come that\u2019s just fine with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winter solstice, when the Earth is tilted on its axis the furthest away from the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,19582,18138,19583],"class_list":["post-267215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-jack-frost","tag-polar-paradise","tag-snowcone-shave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}