I'm a skier, both downhill and cross country. Skiing is one of the things I love about the Syracuse area.

In the haiku, I was trying to capture the essence of Syracuse, and part of that essence is our relationship with winter.

As a teacher, I appreciated snow days just as much as the students did. I loved those quite mornings before the plows arrived, when the world was blanketed with snow and filled with silence.

On such a morning, you can ski in the street. The only sound you hear is the swish of your skis as you make the first tracks in the snow. You feel a part of that winterscape.