Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Light and Dark

The six ecological seasons, illustrated by Meinolf Wewel

  "...the man in the street does not know a star in the sky. 

The solstice he does not observe; the equinox he knows as little; 

and the whole bright calendar of the year is without a dial in his mind. "

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Midweek Motif ~ Light and Dark

(The Longest/Shortest Day, Solstice)

In the Northern Hemisphere, our days lengthen into summer until our longest day, this year Friday, 20 June (the precise solstice is at 6:51 AM (ET) on Saturday, June 21).  In the Southern Hemisphere, our days shorten into winter until this shortest day. Thus, in the North we are about to experience the slow (re)turn to Dark; in the South we are about to experience the slow (re)turn to Light.

Your Challenge:  Use longest/shortest day or return to Light/Dark—as a metaphor in a new poem.  

Poetic inspiration:

Day in Autumn

BY RAINER MARIA RILKE,  TRANSLATED BY MARY KINZIE Read the translator's notes

After the summer's yield, Lord, it is time

to let your shadow lengthen on the sundials

and in the pastures let the rough winds fly.

As for the final fruits, coax them to roundness.

Direct on them two days of warmer light
. . . .   ( Continue reading HERE.)

We Have Not Long To Love

BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

We have not long to love.

Light does not stay.

The tender things are those

we fold away.

. . . .   (Read the rest HERE.)

Please:  

1.      Post your poem with its  Light and Dark motif on your site, and then link it here.

2.      Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 

3.      Leave a comment here.

4.      Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.

(Next week's Midweek Motif is Diary Stories.)

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Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Newness

“How fast the stream flows from January to December!” 

― Virginia Woolf, The Waves

A MOTIF is an important and usually repeating idea or theme in a work of art,  a feature in a decoration or design <a flower motif in wallpaper> , and similar ideas in music and science.

 Today’s Motif: Newness 

In 75 words or less: A New Year.  Again.  Are you a fan of "new"? Or are you tired of the whole idea of "new," preferring the tried and true?  As I take over Kim's Verse First starting today, I feel almost too much newness.  I miss her already.

My favorite thing about a New Year in the Northeast USA is that I see the return of the light that began with the Winter Solstice. Days grow longer and promise is in the air.  This is both new and old, recurring year after year.

Today I am inspired by poets Carl Adamshick and Jimmy Santiago Baca:

New years' morning by Carl Adamshick
A low, quiet music is playing— distorted trumpet, torn bass line, white windows. My palms are two speakers the size of pool-hall coasters. I lay them on the dark table for you to repair.                                                    (35 words)
Copyright © 2010 by Carl Adamshick. From Curses and Wishes (Louisiana State University Press, 2011). Used by permission of the author.  This poem was featured as 1/1/2014 poem-a-day at Poets.org.

It would be neat if with the New Year

     BY JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA

                   for Miguel

It would be neat if with the New Year

I could leave my loneliness behind with the old year.

My leathery loneliness an old pair of work boots

my dog vigorously head-shakes back and forth in its jaws,

 . . . . 

 ~See the rest at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179715 

From Winter Poems Along the Río Grande. Copyright © 2004 by Jimmy Santiago Baca. 

Please:

1. Post your 75-word (or less) poem on your site and then link it here.
2. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
3. Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.

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