Near the Solstice

Sonnet and Tanka

As we approach the solstice, the shifting balance of night and day becomes ever more evident. Dawn is the most beautiful time of all. This sonnet is a brief glimpse from a morning earlier this week. There was already plenty of light, but the swiftly rising sun had not yet crested the mountains to the east. The amount of chatter and exuberant activity from birds and rabbits was intense.

Sunrise Moments

The dawn is gold-edged silver where it meets
the silhouettes of mountains in dark gray;
the valley’s curve begins green-glimmered day
before the brief night’s cooler breath retreats.
For in the dawn we taste the summer’s sweets:
upon this early hour no shadows prey;
in the soft gleam small birds and rabbits play
beneath unshaded boughs before earth heats
to summer day. And song is everywhere
moment by moment as the growing white
of dawn creates a ring, a rising glare
of glory and of fear where mountains’ height
just slows the sunrise, while the moments bear
it on and upward to the long day’s light.

---

And then there is sunset, when the heat is just beginning to slacken, when many creatures once again slip out of their daytime shelters to explore in search of water and food. This tanka follows another desert dweller that came through the dry wash on a recent evening.

Gray-coat coyote,
sun ruddied your red-stained fur;
yet you are no fox,
swinging through brush at sundown,
scattering the summer quail.

---