Solstice \ December Gifts

Alan:  Sometimes, in the season of shortest days, the weather can seem animate, refractory, even predatory.

Solstice

The year backs up:

dog refuses

collar horse

resists halter –

welter of contrary

winds, weird

weathers.

Geese explode

from the bay:

water kicks

like bullets.

In the alders,

a white rock

jumps: hare,

exposed by snow-melt,

caught naked.

Earth’s axis

teeters,

uncertain.

The wind

makes a sound

like a beast

in a cave

moving closer,

closer.

Nancy: Long dark nights and gray days – we want the early dawns and long twilights of summer.

December Gifts

The tide in the high marsh,

the low sun, slow to stand over the ridge,

the sea smoke .  .  .

I went out wanting the year to turn,

and turned myself instead, turned back

to today, glad to have received

water, light, frost blooming on dry stems.