Winter Solstice – The Year’s Compline

The winter solstice is the year withdrawing
From all the busy-ness of being-ness,
And life in all its transfigurations
Seems lost beyond this cold, mist-haunted world

Time almost stops. Low-orbiting, the sun
Drifts dimly, drably through Orion’s realm
Morning becomes deep dusk; there is no noon
Four candles are the guardians of failing light

Until that Night when they too disappear
Beneath a Star, before a greater Light

The winter solstice is the year withdrawing
From all the busy-ness of being-ness,
And life in all its transfigurations
Seems lost beyond this cold, mist-haunted world

Time almost stops. Low-orbiting, the sun
Drifts dimly, drably through Orion’s realm
Morning becomes deep dusk; there is no noon
Four candles are the guardians of failing light

Until that Night when they too disappear
Beneath a Star, before a greater Light



Lawrence Hall
Coffee and a Dead Alligator to Go
Available from amazon.com on Kindle and as bits of dead trees

we have found each other
   across thousands of miles
   across different cultures and traditions
    
we have found each other
   among seven billion plus people
   on this globe

   finding each other
   was the easiest part

   strangers in the night

   staying together
   has been truly challenging
   at times

idiosyncracies
failures deficiencies fears
hopes wishes dreams
illusions and taboos
pieces of history from previous lives
   keep popping up at crucial moments
   in often Freudian transfigurations

   innocuous words
   may trigger convoluted memories
   freighten new contexts
      with old pain and sorrow

   a gesture
   a tone of speech
   a situation
   suddenly turn into déjà vu
   twisting their present freshness
      beyond belief
   into habitual frames of order

   the prisons of our pasts
   do not offer easy escapes

yet we have found each other
   among the billions on this globe

there is no other but the each
   to build a life together

You inhabit the world
As a sculpture of the wind.
        
Your radiant forms,
Feast of light and shadows.

In the center of perception,
Watching you makes everything real.

Aroma of nakedness,
I devour your feast of forms.

Transfigurations, endless possibilities;
Your body is the the bridge over the abyss.

I WAS FORBIDDEN TO SEE HIS FACE OR HIS PHYSIQUE
BUT HE ALWAYS LET ME KNOW THAT HE WAS THERE.
HE GAVE ME THE FINER THINGS AND TREATED ME FAIR,
AND I KNOW THAT HE LOVED ME I DARE SAY, OF THAT
HE NEVER SWAYED.

SINCE THE DAY I HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY
FROM MY FATHER AND SISTERS, I HAVE LIVED WITH
THIS MAN AS MY HUSBAND, NEVER TO SEE HIS FACE
BUT ONLY TO FEEL HIS TOUCH.
ALWAYS LEFT TO WONDER IF HE WAS A MAN WITH BEAUTIFUL
FEATURES OR A HIDEOUS DEFECT OF AN UNFORSEEN CREATURE.

HIS LOVE WAS GENUINE FOR HE NEVER FAILS TO TELL ME, NEVER FAILS TO SHOW ME AND TO THAT I HOLD TRUE HIS LOVE FOR ME, IT WAS NEVER BLUE. FOR ONE DAY AFTER NEARLY A YEAR OF HIS PLEASANT LOVE HE ALLOWED MY BELOVED SISTERS TO COME AND PAY ME A VISIT AND I WAS NEVER MORE THE HAPPIER FOR I HAD NOT SEEM THEM SINCE I HAVE BEEN TAKEN.
BUT OTHER REASONS HAD THEY FOR THEIR VISIT, OH I WAS SO MISTAKEN.

THEY POURED INTO MY SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
THEIR LIES, DECIET AND THEIR MALACE FOR THEY
HAVE BECOME ENVIOUS OF THE SPLENDOR THAT HAD BEFALLEN ME,
OF THE GRANDOISE OF MY CONFORT; THEY THOUGHT ME TO LIVE UNHAPPY
BUT WERE TAKEN ABACK AND SO BELIEVED THAT I WAS NOT FIT FOR SUCH A PALACE. THEY FILLED MY HEAD WITH SUCH OPPOSITES, TWISTED HALF-TRUTHS AND CONVINCED ME THEY DID, FOR I LET THEM GET THE BEST OF ME.

ONE NIGHT AS MY BELOVED SLEPT, INTO HIS ROOM I CREPT AND AT HIS SIDE
I TOOK THE CANDLE AND AS QUICKLY AS I GRABBED THE SCONCE I TOURCHED IT
AND HELD IT AS HIGH ABOVE HIM AS I CAN HANDLE.

LOW AND BEHOLD MY BREATH WAS TAKEN AS I STOOD THERE IN FRONT OF
MY HUSBAN I WAS SO FROZEN!
THERE I STOOD TAKEN ABACK JUST STARING AT HIS GLORIOUS FEATURES.
ALL GOLDEN! LOVELY GOLDEN LOCKS OF HONEY SCENTED HAIR, SMOOTH SILKY
SKIN SO SOFT AND FARE, AND LONG BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN LASHES.

OH, HOW I WAS SO WRONG ABOUT HIM, ABOUT EVERYTHING.  I WAS SO
WRONG TO HAVE DOUBTED HIM, BUT IT WAS TOO LATE.
MY LOVE CAUGHT ME LOOKING DOWN ON HIM AND AS I CAME OUT OF MY
FROZEN STATE WITH A STARTLED REFLEX, I UNINTENTIONALLY BURNED HIM
WITH HOT WAX FROM MY CANDLE AND WITH A SCREAM SO LOVELY HE JUMPED
FROM HIS SERENE SLUMBER OFF THE BED, HE WAS GLARING AT ME,
THE BRIDE HE HAD WED AND HIS FACE TURNED SO SAD FOR ME BECAUSE
IN HIS HEART HE TRULY LOVED ME, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE KNEW
WHAT MUST BE DONE.

“MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?
HAVE I NOT TOLD YOU FROM THE VERY BEGINNING
THAT MY LOVE WAS ALL YOU NEEDED TO TRUST?
INSTEAD YOU BETRAY ME WITH YOUR UNCERTAINTY.
HAVE I NOT TOLD YOU THAT I WAS A MAN OF HONOR,
INTERGRITY, OF HOPE AND OF LOVE?
YET YOU GO AND FORSAKE ME WITH YOUR MORTAL CURIOUSITY
AND FOR THAT I MUST LEAVE YOU, FOR YOU DO NOT DESERVE ME
MY SWEET LOVE.”

I FELL DOWN TO MY KNEES AS I WATCHED WITH TEARS OF SADNESS
ONCE FULL OF JOY FOR HIS GLORY WAS TOO MUCH TO BEHOLD,
THE BEAUTIFUL CREATURE WHO HAD TAKEN ME TO WIFE,
SPREAD HIS MIGHTY WINGS, TOOK HOLD OF HIS BOW AND SATCHEL
FULL OF GOLDEN ARROW TIPS AND IT WAS THEN THAT I HAD REALIZED MY HUSBAND NOT A MAN; OH MY HOW STUPID FOR I KNEW THEN MY HUSBAND, SON OF APHRODITE THE GODDESS OF LOVE, WAS CUPID!