We rise up laughing with the light — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Take my hand as we enter this frame

of a doorway to a new year, already named

but still mysteriously unknown

and if laughter is the medicine to keep us sane

let us remember, together, the place from which we came

is foundation for home

Inspired by The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox https://poets.org/poem/year

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

So much of any year is flammable ... — Naomi Shihab Nye

She reminds me that books of matches are things one needs to keep dry,

to tuck them safe inside a pocket within a jacket within a shirt,

It's fire, she's talking about, but me, I'm watching the year passing by -

scraps of days and nights as kindling, a desire to turn black ash into story and maybe, start anew,

it's friction on worn flint - it's me, scratching into the memory of you

Inspired by Burning The Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye https://poets.org/poem/burning-old-year

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

And the wind in the chimney made a melancholy sound ... — Edna St. Vincent Millay

The sky god is at it again making music with the wind, as if clouds were beating on bongoes or tapping timpani

It sounds to me as if some spirit were restless and channeling winter, a composition designed to make the chimney stones splinter

We huddle beneath blanket, and next to fire, leaning into some invisible desire, listening to melodic dreams of a song lulling us back to sleep

Inspired by When The Year Grows Old by Edna St. Vincent Millay https://poets.org/poem/when-year-grows-old

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

And the sprawling Bear growled deep in the sky ... — Walter de la Mare

Dream, then, won't you of stories that span the sky

the sparkling connectors of imaginary ink, drawn between you and I

Here, in this night silence, we hum a little tune, time passing by

And tomorrow, we'll remember the canvas and how we settled into our quiet

Inspired by Winter by Walter de la Mare https://poets.org/poem/winter

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

The sky stops, slate on slate — Ray McNiece

Chipped black paint against a glittering canvas, and where is the white of starlight when you need it?

Tomorrow, the slate will fade, quicker by day, the slumbering sun yawning and stretching, if you can believe in it

But today, we huddle, shivering, every word we write a poem becoming blanket against the cold, the day is young but we won't grieve it

Inspired by Winter Solstice by Ray McNiece https://poets.org/poem/winter-solstice-1

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

tomorrow's dust flares into breath — Mark Strand

This broken sky gathers, a pocket of stars – the closer in we gaze at the galaxy unfolding, the farther we are – breathe in the ink of skin, this stone and rust – we're all writing in dust, just stories unfolding through pages dotted by time and forgotten mornings disappearing on the horizon line

Inspired by The Coming of Light by Mark Strand https://poets.org/poem/coming-light

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

But still wild music is abroad ... – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ice floes rattle - the rhythm of the river remains forever constant, stones kicking against limb - the water's hymn to winter wild and in forever motion - this song is singing its way for miles and miles, a child kicking against the confines of twist and path and fall, before settling in, the harmony of others, the draw, listening for the call of a raging ocean

Inspired by Woods In Winter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow https://poets.org/poem/woods-winter

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

they by one voice fired, one heart of flame ... — Emma Lazarus

Sing then – so let us sing then we will dance again

holding hands and taking time to reach out for another in the Solstice night

take flight, Fears, for where you were now our voices force you to fade, and disappear

and we are here, still here, a motley collection of disparate parts, bound by the heart

Sing then – so let us sing and then we will dance again

Inspired by The Feast Of Light by Emma Lazarus https://poets.org/poem/feast-lights

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

Some day, when trees have shed their leaves And against the morning’s white The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night ... — Claude McKay

Wonder at the magic of the Pine

green needled trees, still standing, bent, in Winter's time

while others drowse and sleep, leaning in against wind and storm

The Pine greets us, quiet with arms stretching, nearly every morn

Inspired by After The Winter by Claude McKay https://poets.org/poem/after-winter

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p

Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone ... — Christina Rossetti

Below this surface the winter river still flows

the river flows but we can only observe it

we can't touch winter water with a surface like stone

the tension solidified into stone and the sword is missing

the sword's gone missing with the magic is sleeping

and while the story sleeps the water tumbles over iron Earth

tumbling, caressing this Earth of iron, and still, the winter river flows

Inspired by A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti https://poets.org/poem/christmas-carol

Prompt via Winter #SolsticePoem Prompts (via Deanna): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZjzQCxAlSozwsiWI-KBWYmTv6AdFEME4V9AQwrATcnE/present?slide=id.p