Winter Solstice, 2013

This weary year has run its course,

Earth has turned upon its inclined axis,

Now is the time for me to turn,

Turn inward, turn inward.

What spirits are about?

What pranks will play upon this longest night?

This solstice marks the true, the real, year’s end—

For our hemisphere.

With celestial logic

This night the southern hemisphere

Will grind toward its own winter.

Tomorrow earth will continue its trek around the sun,

Both hemispheres will mark the change.

O so gradual the turning of the earth.

O so slowly the grinding of the spheres.

O so rich in deep portents is this night.

So weary and so complex.

--December 22, 2013