Solstice Song - Elaine Christo Watkins

[Larry Robinson]

Solstice Song
 
On this midwinter night
let us summon what we’ve lost
with chant, prayer, song, fire,
faith that the nearly forgotten
will open and rise anew
and the world will turn
back toward the light.
Midwinter’s gift is memory
to hold a place for what was and will be again.
Leaves fallen off ancient vines
reveal gnarled fists of twisted branches
that even now push buds into the frosted night.
Low in the December sky
a tenebrous bulge of darkness
cradles the waxing crescent of a buttery moon.
And at the end of the western road
lies the black wet flatness of sand
where the tide ebbed and is now returning
in its endless whispering susurrus.
At this fulcrum of the season
we raise our arms and press fingertips
against the darkness to tip it back.
There are many winters in our pasts
and there is a time to allow our bodies to be tired and cold,
but beneath it all and slowly rising
like Lazarus to walk the warm earth again,
our blood is flowing, our muscles stretch and lengthen,
the pale green leaves encircling our hearts
await their unfolding.
We lean into the dawn,
eager to call the light home
and be young together
once more.

	- Elaine Christo Watkins