The Turning of the Sun
Created | Updated Dec 19, 2010
The Post
Christmas Poetry Competition 2010
The Turning of the Sun by Dmitri Gheorgheni
Long-nighted December brings shivers deep in the bone.
Fear of want and cold makes us greedy,
Loneliness makes us brusque.
We look out our windows with mistrust,
And we hesitate to turn on the television.
Some fool is going to tell us cheer up.
December memory is too sharp:
Its losses cut like a knife.
Our summer dead retain a pleasant glow,
But winter spectres chill the blood.
Deck the halls, my eye.
The wayward tune stabs to the heart.
Go away, you carollers.
No angels wanted here.
But wait...
Isn't that the sense of it all?
Do we not know what we need
When snow falls and things die
And all of us need shelter, shelter
For body, mind, and heart?
Let the carols play.
Dispense the cheer.
Let the heart recall the dear moment, painful though it be.
This is the meaning of the solstice:
Light the fire, remember,
The sunlight will return.
The Post Christmas Competitions 2010
