The Winter Solstice is upon us!
Back in 2017 Marie Lightman and Richard Skinner put together a beautiful Winter Solstice Anthology. This moment, as the Old (and much berated) Year of 2020 catches its breath, before hurtling us forward into the light of New Year 2021, gives us a chance to reflect on the glories and challenges of this time of year, as the 21st century finally comes of age.
Here's one of Rebecca Gethin's poems from the anthology. I'm sharing this because it captures a moment of rare beauty and evokes a fine and spiritual truth. It's quite lovely when we find a poem that says something that we struggle to say ourselves... and this is what this little, but potent, poem does... it's exactly how the Solstice felt around a small bonfire by the River Dart last night, at Sharpham Meadow on a vigil with my family and our sleeping ones.
Dec 21st 2017
Robins sing a few notes in the twilight blackbirds cluck. A dark silhouette flies to the tree and swivels its head from side to side. In the distance a pheasant chirks as Venus slips out from behind a dark cloud.
We don’t know what there is to know, nor who is safe and who isn’t. Behind us the door of the year has just closed and the keyhole of the new moon is too far to reach.
