Hallowed hollow
I will hold a space
A dark space
An empty place
A hallowed hollow,
Cupped between hands
Hidden between breaths
Lost between heartbeats
Harrowed from soul-falls.
I will hold a space
Without prayer
Without hope
Without desire.
winter poems
Solstice Prayer
Solstice Prayer
Breathe in; the moment has come
To hold your breath within your heart.
Silence, while the light becomes so still
You can hear the tiny cracks as dawn breaks.
This moment, the light has travelled far
And pauses before starting that slow return
Growing greater by minute increments
Invisible at first but sure and steady
In the agonising climb to another height.
Like a pendulum, the year has swung,
Reached that still point of lowness.
The rising sun weak with worn gold
Shot through with crimson blood
Peeps above heavy clouds and
The moment passes, as always,
And we breathe out, knowing that
The darkness is turned away.
Snapshot in Ice
I had a return of the severe pain on Saturday, much to my surprise. I didn’t pass out this time, and didn’t go to hospital but instead managed the pain at home. I’m feeling very tired and weak. I’m sure you probably know that the UK is unusually cold and snowy at the moment and I hope to write something about it soon. But the medication and the tiredness are not helpful for inspiration so I shall share a poem I have posted before. I hope to have something fresh for later in the week.
Snapshot in ice
The world is frozen,
Every web edged in ice,
Occupant huddled under leaf
Awaiting a thaw.
Seedheads, candied in frost,
Return to brief flowering,
Coated in fragile crystal
So dense it seems furry.
Ferns are turned to fossils,
Chrysanthemums to pom-poms.
Even the air is frozen,
Full of microscopic ice.
Foghorns call across the miles,
Invisible as owls in the night,
And the sea, oblivious,
Crashes softly on the shore.
Solstice: Saluto Sol Invictus!
Solstice Dance
21st December 09
The year finally turns
Pirouetting en pointe
The Dancer meets the Dance:
I am renewed
I have been waiting for this day since the evenings began to creep in back in September; and yet, now it’s here, I feel no different. The poem isn’t a lie but it isn’t how I feel. It may well be the truth, a statement of reality that I have to slowly wake up to. But the walk I had today, in woods and beach frozen and layered with snow, makes me feel that winter is still going to grip my soul a long while:
Solstice haikus
21st December 09
Snow on dark holly
Sunlight on ice, sparkling bright:
Lovely but so bleak
Silence fills cold air
Crunching feet on frozen snow:
Stillness reigns again.
