<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Courier New'; position: static; z-index: auto; "><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="top" width="80%" class=""><span class="TITLE" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><font face="UICTFontTextStyleBody">Toward the Winter Solstice</font></span></td><td colspan="2" align="right" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top" class=""><span class="" style="white-space: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><font face="UICTFontTextStyleBody"> </font></span></td></tr><tr class=""><td colspan="3" class=""><span class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><font face="UICTFontTextStyleBody"><br class=""><a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1550" class=""></a></font></span></td></tr><tr class=""><td colspan="3" class=""><span class="" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><font face="UICTFontTextStyleBody"><br class=""></font></span></td></tr><tr class=""><td colspan="2" valign="top" class=""><pre class=""><font class="" face="UICTFontTextStyleBody" style="white-space: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Although the roof is just a story high,<br class="">It dizzies me a little to look down.<br class="">I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights<br class="">And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;<br class="">A dowel into which I’ve screwed a hook<br class="">Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine<br class="">The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs<br class="">Will accent the tree’s elegant design.<br class=""><br class="">Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause<br class="">And call up commendations or critiques.<br class="">I make adjustments. Though a potpourri<br class="">Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,<br class="">We all are conscious of the time of year;<br class="">We all enjoy its colorful displays<br class="">And keep some festival that mitigates<br class="">The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.<br class=""><br class="">Some say that L.A. doesn’t suit the Yule,<br class="">But UPS vans now like magi make<br class="">Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves<br class="">Are gaily resurrected in their wake; <br class="">The desert lifts a full moon from the east<br class="">And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,<br class="">And valets at chic restaurants will soon<br class="">Be tending flocks of cars and SUVs.<br class=""><br class="">And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk<br class="">The fan palms scattered all across town stand<br class="">More calmly prominent, and this place seems<br class="">A vast oasis in the Holy Land.<br class="">This house might be a caravansary,<br class="">The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead<br class="">Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces<br class="">And ceintures of green, yellow, blue, and red.<br class=""><br class="">Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem<br class="">Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;<br class="">It’s comforting to look up from this roof<br class="">And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,<br class="">To recollect that in antiquity<br class="">The winter solstice fell in Capricorn<br class="">And that, in the Orion Nebula,<br class="">From swirling gas, new stars are being born.</font></pre><pre class=""><font face="UICTFontTextStyleBody"><span style="white-space: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); "><font class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Timothy Steele</font><font class=""><br class=""></font></span></font></pre><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br></div></body></html>