Here it is, the solstice. The longest night of the year has arrived. Physics and astronomy can explain how and when this moment occurs. But for me it’s about the mystery and the marking of a subtle shift, the feeling of a pause before the increasing daylight clearly begins to shift the balance.
My Crow
A crow flew into the tree outside my window.
It was not Ted Hughes’s crow, or Galway’s crow.
Or Frost’s, Pasternak’s, or Lorca’s crow.
Or one of Homer’s crows, stuffed with gore,
after the battle. This was just a crow.
That never fit in anywhere in its life,
or did anything worth mentioning.
It sat there on the branch for a few minutes.
Then picked up and flew beautifully
out of my life.
–Raymond Carver, from In A Marine Light: Selected Poems
2 replies on “#21 decembrance 2024”
Half a dozen crows were perched on the bird feeder in my backyard today — taking turns removing slivers of suet from the suet-cage. Happy solstice!
Thank you for leading us once again with words and images through the darkness to the moment when tiny slivers of light beginning to be added to the morning. I look forward to this adventure every year.