#Solstice Poem

[mournfulroses]

Margaret Atwood, from The Selected Poems of Margaret Atwood; "Solstice Poem,"

[coldphantompoetry]

"Explain" they said.

And so I tried.

The meaning lost within furrowed brows of misunderstanding.

So I showed them.

Outside.

Showed them the sky, pink with clouds.

Showed them that fiery orange orb that is the Sun.

And the sky was theirs alone.

Candy floss haze and golden glow.

"Did you ever see such beauty?"

Silence. Loudly mocking.

Cocktail party smiles carefully fixed.

Tainted vision cannot perceive the magic of a summer's night.

What profit to be made from splendour?

And that great star slipped earthwards;

A bow to end the Solstice show.

Lights dimmed in preparation for the final player;

Soft shadows kneel to mark their entrance,

As darkness sweeps across the stage;

Resplendent in their summer cloak of darkest blues.

Cannot yet twinkle little star;

Await your cue.

And yet I cannot make them see any more than 'night' and 'day'

And it makes me cry.

[wordsmithnikki]

Poem: On A Winter Solstice

I hope you enjoy this little sliver of poetic light... On a winter solstice eight years ago I made a mirror image of my head, heart and soul. The mirror wasn’t quite as you might expect. The mirror moves and is a portal to now and then and next.

By Nikki Wordsmithhello@nikkiwordsmith.com Photo by Nikki Wordsmith of Rivington Lower Reservoir On Winter Solstice On a winter solstice eight years ago I made a mirror image of my head, heart and soul.The mirror wasn’t quite as you might expect.The mirror moves and is a portal to now and then and next. Where we can, if we care to look, see a brand new dawn.And if you care to really look close…

[iambrillyant]

“your new era begins when you choose yourself unapologetically and release the weight of who you were yesterday, it begins when you decide that you’re deserving of a life better than the one you’re leaving behind, it begins when you start to believe in your own worthiness.”

— billy chapata

[nodoveisacovenant]

Every season contains the seeds of the next

Solstice

For the tide of winter 

the stars alone

darkened from the moon,

haloes of profusion

penetrating the branches

Animal bellows

the fresh earth

the cold gust

a twinkle through oaks

a brutal breath

delivered promptly

Like rain

the remote aurora 

lifting first one veil

and then another

Image: Unknown

[adventuresofalgy]

It was the Winter Solstice, the darkest, shortest day of the year, and Algy had risen, quite literally, high into the air, as soon as it was light enough to see, in order to inspect his new surroundings.

And joy of joy, he knew where he was! Algy was the happiest fluffy bird in all the world, for at last he was not only no longer lost, but he was in an area he knew well, not all that far from his very own home.

Setting off as soon as he had consumed a hasty and decidedly scanty breakfast – for there was little food to be found in the snow – Algy flew steadily through the brief hours of daylight, with his magic pumpkin clasped firmly in his beak. And when the shortest day quickly gave way to night, Algy did not pause, but continued to fly ever onward through the silvery moonlight, rejoicing at the familiarity of the landscape below.

Gazing up at the moon from time to time, Algy recalled one of the best poems ever written about that beautiful Empress of the Night, and practised reciting it inside his fluffy head as he continued to make his way happily homewards:

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold A Night or two ago – And now she turns Her perfect Face Upon the World below – Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde – Her Cheek – a Beryl hewn – Her Eye unto the Summer Dew The likest I have known – Her Lips of Amber never part – But what must be the smile Upon Her Friend she could confer Were such Her Silver Will – And what a privilege to be But the remotest Star – For Certainty She take Her Way Beside Your Palace Door – Her Bonnet is the Firmament – The Universe – Her Shoe – The Stars – the Trinkets at Her Belt – Her Dimities – of Blue.

[Algy is thinking of the poem The Moon was but a Chin of Gold by the 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson.]

[ekmosley]

Happy Winter Solstice everyone,  The stars are shining bright tonight. . . • * • *

[headlightsforever]

Gary Young

[mournfulroses]

Margaret Atwood, from True Stories: Poems; "Small Poem for the Winter Solstice," originally published in 1981

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Skansen Midsummer Maypole Dance :: 1940s Stockholm Sweden

* * * *

The Solstice

They say the sun will come back at midnight after all my one love but we know how the minutes fly out into the dark trees and vanish like the great ʻōhiʻas and honey creepers and we know how the weeks walk into the shadows at midday at the thought of the months I reach for your hand it is not something one is supposed to say we watch the bright birds in the morning we hope for the quiet daytime together the year turns into air but we are together in the whole night with the sun still going away and the year coming back

~ W.S. Merwin, from his book The Rain in the Trees, (Alfred Knopf, 1988). © 2017 by W. S. Merwin (with thanks to the merwinconservancy)

[alive on all channels]

[words-and-coffee]

Nothing’s broken, nevertheless I’m skinless, the gentlest touch would gut me.

Margaret Atwood, True Stories: Small Poems For The Winter Solstice

[worldbuildingwanderlust]

Winter Solstice

On the shortest day

We cherish the brevity

Of the Light

On the longest night

We dive deep

Into darkness

To find Truth

Within ourselves

[dzgrizzle]

[agrownupgeekgirl]

Nature is forever arriving

and forever departing,

forever approaching,

forever vanishing;

but in her vanishings

there seems to be ever the waving of a hand,

in all her partings

a promise of meetings farther along the road.

- Richard Le Gallienne

[soulinkpoetry]

Minutes and hours and days they seem to go by so quickly.

.

.

[derangedrhythms]

[...] dark and witchy,

Ted Hughes, Collected Poems: Uncollected (1977-78); from ‘A Solstice’