This year the winter solstice is on Saturday, the 22nd. I am delighted that the days will begin to lengthen. So far this month, dusk seems to arrive at about the time one takes a late lunch!
A bit early, I wish you a good solstice and send you a poem that seems to fit the last two days of autumn. My 8th-grade teacher first introduced me to this poem and it has remained one of my favorites. Do you like it?
Leaf Burning
I swept the fallen leaves up yesterday
And touched them with slow fire;
And as I saw smoke rise and drift away
I knew a keen desire.
To sweep my mind of old things lying there,
Dreams long since dead . . .
Hopes that have clung like leaves on boughs now bare,
And tears that I have shed . . .
I longed to gather every little grief
Left scattered round.
Small doubts and fears and lay them in a sheaf
Of fire, smoke crowned;
Then stir the embers so a laughing wind
Might lift the ashes of old praise or blame
And bear them far away, leaving my mind
Clean as if swept by flame.
—Virginia EatonThe shortest day and longest night,
The solstice of December.
May long days find you newly bright;
Worn thoughts, just a stale ember.
Image credit: masheguna_images at photobucket
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