Solstice

Sometimes I think I would like to tumble, roll and dance away

Like the leaf, curled and dried

That lifts and swirls across the frozen pond

Sometimes I think I would like to elude the season

When the sun’s warming rays

Are pruned and clipped and she looses her long leggy shine

I would like to avoid the heavy blanket of weariness

That hangs on the fringes of an early sunset

The limited color palette of November’s anemic pall

But then I would not be rewarded with the surprise

Of a brilliant winter sunset, pink and orange bands

Light’s refraction, caught in the prism of crystalline sunset

Without this season, I would not be invited to pause

For I am the seed, resting still and dormant

Underground, in self-reflection and anticipation

If not for this cold and dark, I would not warm by the fire’s flame

Nor would I notice this minute’s gift, as the earth turns round

And I shift in focus, angle and perspective

Waiting, now for light to return, this ancient rhythm set

Honored through ages, Holy and Divine

I notice myself in sacred space, my own kernel cracked

Humbly I join the sun to bring light into this darkness

December 22, 2018

Janet Elizabeth Hartwick Sterk