Why Does It Snow? (a poem)

Pic by Holly Heyser NorCal Cazadora


"Why does it snow?  Why does it snow?"
The children come crowding around me to know.
I said to my nephew, I said to my niece,
"It's just the old woman a-plucking her geese."

With her riddle cum dinky dido,
With her riddle cum dinky dee.

The old woman sits on a pillowy cloud,
She calls to her geese, and they come in a crowd;
A cackle a wackle, a hiss and a cluck,
And then the old woman begins for to pluck.

With her riddle cum dinky dido,
With her riddle cum dinky dee.

The feather go fluttering up in the air,
Until the poor geese are entirely bare;
A toddle, a waddle, a hiss and a cluck,
"You may grow some more if you have the good luck!"

With your riddle cum dinky diodo,
With your riddle cum dinky dee.

The feathers go swirling around and around,
Then whirlicking, twirlicking, sink to the ground;
The farther they travel, the colder they grow,
And when they get down here, they've turned into snow.

With their riddle cum dinky dido,
With their riddle cum dinky dee.

~Laura E. Richards

This poem is a special one to our family because every year when it would begin to snow, I would go to our well-worn Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America and find this poem to recite together.  The kids all memorized it at one time or another.  As it snows once again today, I'm thinking of this poem and my lil chicks acting silly as they would recite with me.  And while we were engrossed in our poetry book, we would turn the pages to a couple other  Laura E. Richards poems:   Eletelephony, Antonio, and Punkydoodle and Jollapin.

Special thanks to Holly Heyser for the terrific goose feathers picture. 
Do check out her amazing hunting blog here.