May your annual commemoration
of the winter solstice
with one of the Earth's poles
at its maximum tilt from the sun
be abundant with innumerable manifestations
of felicity friends good food and fun
and may the next full circuit
of the ecliptic engender
a propensity toward
bestowing plenteousness too
and may unparalleled prosperity
be forthcoming
and settle like snowflakes
gently upon you
The winter solstice
Is as big as the year
A small reunion
May you have
The warmest love
On the longest night
The days after this
Are like cold light
Meets the sun
Bright and bright.
Winter Is here,
Fear washed away my sorrow with desperation and opportunism,
Now I wait for winter,
For I will meet the woman of my dreams in winter,
Torrid freezing,
Will throw her into my arms,
Winter is here,
Fear washed away my manhood with white supremacy,
I’m dreaming of a white woman,
To wash away all of my sorrow,
I am desperate and opportunistic,
Winter is here,
I finally found my white bride,
She told me she loved me as she put me in handcuffs for being black,
I cried tears of joy,
Winter is here,
My jacket is white like the snow,
It makes me look cool,
But I can’t move,
And boy do I have some moves.
Radiant crystals illuminate thee, nocturnal mistress
in the wan dawn light where darkness drapes skies
Requiem aeternam bright halo, lies heaven’s portal
Winters wispy cirrus refracting ring circling
Mohawkin bespeaks of a Christmas cold moon
…December’s icy grip
Riffling ebb and tide, spawner of loon
Let rage and ruin Not be the end of me
Rubaiyat’s rhyme in thy honor
Let the waters settle, quotes of Rumi
Mercurial doomsday ruminates Mina Loy
Reigning ascendant masking impressions
Clouds envelop, shadow’s born shorn
Ravishing stillness, stormy tasks pending…
bright white ring of light
rage and ruin’s calmly still ~
not the end of me
winter solstice arriving...
shortest day and longest night...
silent trees gather forces
for returning light
lighter, longer, brighter days
saunter through the winter gloom...
light triumphs over darkness
renewal awaits
Freezer door open early winter crystals emerge
I am sunk deep
in the dark of this day,
peer out of a hollow
that holds the tribe's history
drawn in ochre on a rock wall.
Outside is a numb, frozen world
that yields little food. Animals
are scarce and I am kept alive
by stealth and making most
of the meager offerings that
fall to my spear.
I hate being here,
imprisoned in a poem, placed
in this icy wasteland of prehistory,
cold, abandoned in a pocket of time
by a poet sitting in a warm room
in the twenty-first century.
Note.
Winter Solstice will occur
on the the twenty first of June
for us southern hemisphere
tribes.
masked the winters wind
torrid blows covering the...
naked skins of them
~
humanity cold
frozen speechless versions of
winter solstice frost
2/3/24
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr © 2024
("Winter's Edge", 2018, original encaustic)
Darkness
Darkness darkness be the pillow
That pulls me in and holds me down
When all around the light had faded
And nowhere within it can be found
Somewhere some one is now crying
Out for love or something near
While in silence the dark is calling
A soothing sound but void of cheer
As I sit with dog attentive
Without a clue what humans know
The day outside still bright with promise
Yet in I’m trapped nowhere to go
A pain of loss without dimension
A lack of love for life at hand
A treading of these stale waters
A nowhere place for nowhere man
Come, oh come, bring resolution
For it can’t end in such a way
From the dark a light is growing
The promise of a solstice day…
(12/23/23)
Give yourself to slumber
under ink black clouds.
Moon below the horizon,
light for when it’s dark.
Lie in peaceful presence.
Silhouette of the trees
mythologies reverberate
of songs, put us to sleep.
Dream of all the beings,
our kin gathered around,
flames flicker in shadows
mysteries of living found.
Maybe someday you’ll join us
under the sky’s moonlight.
Stories, song and dancing
long into the warm night.
I hope someday you’ll join us
maybe for just one tale.
World quiet from the fighting
a chance to just exhale.
You find a place where
the sun reaches across
the river with a little feeble
warmth to rest on your face.
Soon it will be the shortest day.
The shadows are cold
and stretch out like fingers,
pinching at what light
you've managed to keep
flickering within yourself.
You find something pleasant
to think about, a memory
perhaps, a fancy,
anything to put into
an old heater to keep
you warm and give out
a comforting glow.
It is then, images begin
to take form in flame
as something in you stirs
and writes itself in ash
to mark another winter solstice
on the walls of your
hibernating soul.
rusted leaves walk down
paths paved by reindeer footfall —
freshly fallen snow
Winters Solstice seems like a never-ending Earthly purgatory
The sun has taken less than more to a different story
It's January, the last true warmth my cold face can remember
It seems so infinitely long ago since that first week of November
This storm of feeling overcast is so unappealing
Ninety-five days more requires persevering
Its for the guaranteed promise of springs revealing
We stand tall against this dirt covered white gloom
She will eventually change from icy to a world in bloom
as days fade to night
the season blights to winter
dearth of light brings haggard chills
landscape bedraggled
shriveled to black then bleached white
cries ice tears then hibernates
Shortest day, longest night
Celebration of light
Glistening ice and snow
Temperatures low
Bare trees
Ponds freeze
Dress warm
Long sleeve uniform
Cardigans and sweatshirts
Goodbye mini skirts
Silk and wool
Indoor pool
Soup and stew
Don’t misconstrue
Wish Bread
Glaze spread
Cinnamon and cloves
On stoves
Ice skating
Snow tube inflating
Snow skiing
Snowboard leaping
Snowshoe wearing
Spectators staring
Hope, intentions, and new year
Celebrate and cheer
Yule brings hope of life
Robins and wrens in strife
Red, white, green, and gold
My, it’s cold!
Related Poems