Summer Solstice 2011 - a reading (on YouTube)
Sunrise, sunset. The day is here, the day is gone.
Summer and winter are inextricably intertwined. Like mating black snakes in a caduceus, they cross at every solstice. Sunrise on the summer solstice aligns to sunset on the first day of winter, just as summer's sunset lines up with winter's dawn. Between those twin poles, time ambles like the river running from the land of the living to the world of the dead. Its wide, unrippled mirror reflects approaching storms in blue and gray and white.
As I tread along the path beside, a mockingbird marks my passage, scalloping from post to post along a fence, always one step ahead, a taunt or a reminder, of what I am unsure. A woodpecker peers from a keyhole in time-hardened tree trunk, then retreats into its sanctuary. A flutter of crows calls back and forth across a dapple-shaded canopy, harbingers of winter tidings as yet unforeseen. Their dark conversations are as brief as summer showers, all traces evaporate beneath the resurgent sun.
Deep within the faerie wood, dawn belatedly flickers through the leaves concealing the horizon to liberate the sleeping giants from the long, sweet siege of night. The fire-stricken kings crash to their knees, their arboreal crowns shattering as they fall. A host of golden-green usurpers sprout from their sun-dispelled shadows, in want of regents as they strive to reclaim their ancient, ancestral lands.
As I wander from morning toward a deeply shadowed afternoon, time creeps forward on padded feet, unnoticed, like vines entwined across a brushfire clearing, like grass subduing the stain a midden mound or a cemetery hill, until it gently covers all.
Sunrise, sunset. The day is here, the night is come.
Summer and winter are inextricably intertwined. Like mating black snakes in a caduceus, they cross at every solstice. Sunrise on the summer solstice aligns to sunset on the first day of winter, just as summer's sunset lines up with winter's dawn. Between those twin poles, time ambles like the river running from the land of the living to the world of the dead. Its wide, unrippled mirror reflects approaching storms in blue and gray and white.
As I tread along the path beside, a mockingbird marks my passage, scalloping from post to post along a fence, always one step ahead, a taunt or a reminder, of what I am unsure. A woodpecker peers from a keyhole in time-hardened tree trunk, then retreats into its sanctuary. A flutter of crows calls back and forth across a dapple-shaded canopy, harbingers of winter tidings as yet unforeseen. Their dark conversations are as brief as summer showers, all traces evaporate beneath the resurgent sun.
Deep within the faerie wood, dawn belatedly flickers through the leaves concealing the horizon to liberate the sleeping giants from the long, sweet siege of night. The fire-stricken kings crash to their knees, their arboreal crowns shattering as they fall. A host of golden-green usurpers sprout from their sun-dispelled shadows, in want of regents as they strive to reclaim their ancient, ancestral lands.
As I wander from morning toward a deeply shadowed afternoon, time creeps forward on padded feet, unnoticed, like vines entwined across a brushfire clearing, like grass subduing the stain a midden mound or a cemetery hill, until it gently covers all.
Sunrise, sunset. The day is here, the night is come.
© 2011 Edward P. Morgan III
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ReplyDeleteNotes and asides:
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Another short message. While I had the idea for the opening and closing lines for some time, the day snuck up on me as I pursued other projects. Or maybe I'm just a bit weary for no reason I can explain
The fact about the winter and summer solstice sunrises and sunsets aligning came from a PBS Nova called Secrets of Stonehenge that we saw this spring. That combined with the configuration of the stones of many Neolithic circles calls into question which of the days the ancient peoples marked along their processionals, or whether it was both.
For a few weeks, I've been walking in the park in the early morning. What I've seen provided the inspiration for this year's message. The smells, pine needles in the sun, the decay of leaf litter, the aroma of certain plants, the humid nearness of fresh water, remind me of summer camps, vacations and weekends spent in the woods more than any sight or sound, except perhaps the orange filter of the sun.
Picture notes:
ReplyDeleteSunrise over the pond by SPC in Seminole near the library and the rec center from August of 2009.