title: Fantasy Snow Formations: Poetry in a New England Garden
author: Charles Beck
description: Charles R. Beck, professor emeritus of elementary education, has published a book titled, What to Listen For in Opera. He has also written many articles for elementary and secondary journals in language arts, music, science, social studies, and technology.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  Breadcrumbs
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Anne Ursu
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Drawings by Erin McGuire
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/00002.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter One](Breadcrumbs_split_002.html#filepos1583)  
  [ Snowfall](Breadcrumbs_split_002.html#filepos1583)
  
  It snowed right before Jack stopped talking to Hazel, fluffy white flakes big
  enough to show their crystal architecture, like perfect geometric poems. It
  was the sort of snow that transforms the world around it into a different kind
  of place. You know what it’s like—when you wake up to find everything white
  and soft and quiet, when you run outside and your breath suddenly appears
  before you in a smoky poof, when you wonder for a moment if the world in which
  you woke up is not the same one that you went to bed in the night before.
  Things like that happen, at least in the stories you read. It was the sort of
  snowfall that, if there were any magic to be had in the world, would make it
  come out.
  
  And magic did come out.
  
  But not the kind you were expecting.
  
  That mor