Solstice

and other celebrations

winter sky, San Pedro River valley & Galiuro Mountains

It has been a quiet Christmas week here, a time for enjoying fairy lights and some extra sweets, as well as gratitude for simply being here. Christmas Day itself was a different matter, being periodically and stridently interrupted by a malfunctioning smoke detector!

The arrival of winter solstice is always a special time just before the main Christmas holiday.

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Sonnet at Solstice

Along the far horizon lies sun’s glow
As red as distant flame. A crack of blue
Crests just above the mountaintops; the low
Black clouds still seal the day from view.
How long the longest night may last, and through
It dawn the shortest day of all the year;
Yet on this day we know all things are new
And greet old Sol with something more than cheer:
The ancient awe that feels the sun appear
Each morning from the bonds of timeless dark,
That cheats again the nighttime’s formless fear,
The silence of all life. Revere that spark
That breaks so gently through the longest night
To give us faith–renewal of the light.

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Then there was this glimpse, which followed a day of very welcome rain, as the sky began to clear.

After the Rain

Pale birds are darting
Northward against the deep blue
Of rain-drenched mountains;
Two white doves rest
On a white wire,
Wrapped in sunlight,
Against the deep blue
Of rain-tall mountains,
While a single sprite of sunlight
Breaks through just above the pass,
Caught between low clouds
And rain-blue mountains.

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And just last night, there was this vision as the half-moon rose.

Half moon melts through clouds
in winter night, burnishing
gold across black sky.

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I hope each of you has had a special week, as well as a safe one as this year draws to its close. Wishing you all the best for the New Year!

Cheers!

from the garden, Christmas Day 2021