Saturday, December 21, 2013

Winter Solstice

Today is the Solstice. It is one of my favorite days in all the year. It is a simple day with the world balancing the dark and the light, the day and the night.

Traditionally, we light fires, sing songs, and wish for the sun to return. As we celebrate the darkest of the dark tonight, let's remember to toast the sun giving her permission to come back to warm our fields and grow our gardens.

Happy Solstice.

A winter scene in my small town in Indiana.
Photo by Tyler Moor

Lines for Winter

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are. 

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