Fresh cut landscape

About Fresh cut landscape

John Greenleaf Whittier grew up on a Haverhill farm and wrote 'Snow-Bound' about a winter when the Whittier homestead was buried and the whole world shrank to the hearth. Fresh cut landscape works so Haverhill households don't stay that way, plowing and clearing driveways and walks when storms push up the Merrimack Valley. Downtown, the old shoe-factory blocks on Washington Street wear frosted cornices, and the river runs dark between white banks. Clearing is timing and muscle: shoving snow back wide enough to leave room for the next storm, then opening steps and paths to the door. The poet's world went silent under the drifts; the aim here is to make the morning ordinary again, with a clear drive and a way to the street.