Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Hayden: ‘Ice Storm’

 I read Robert Hayden’s “Ice Storm” in wonder. How much can be said in 62 words.

The poem describes trees — bound in ice, battered, bent and broken — and dissolves into a prayer:

 

The trees themselves, as in winters past,

will survive their burdening,

broken thrive. And am I less to You,

my God, than they?

 

The poem was written in the days when corrupt governments brutalized and intimidated law-abiding citizens who were African American.

The poem was read (by me) during the big ice storm, when a corrupt government was brutalizing and intimidating law-abiding citizens in Minnesota.

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Hayden: ‘Ice Storm’

  I read Robert Hayden’s “Ice Storm” in wonder. How much can be said in 62 words. The poem describes trees — bound in ice, battered, bent an...