This moment in between

Winter Solstice

Thinking only makes the heart sore.
I Ching
when you startle awake in the dark morning
heart pounding breathing fast
sitting bolt upright staring into
dark whirlpool black hole
feeling its suction
get out of bed
knock at the door of your nearest friend
ask to lie down ask to be held
listen while whispered words
turn the hole into deep night sky
stars close together
winter moon rising over white fields
nearby wren rustling dry leaves
distant owl echoing
two people walking up the road laughing
let your soul laugh
let your heart sigh out
that long held breath so hollow in your stomach
so swollen in your throat
already light is returning pairs of wings
lift softly off your eyelids one by one
each feathered edge clearer between you
and the pearl veil of day
you have nothing to do but live 


~ Anonymous  by Jody Aliesan, from "Grief Sweat" (Broken Moon Press, 1991)

: : :

Update on solstice morn:  overnight, a friend sent a sweet note.

She wondered if perhaps the "anonymous" poem above had been written by me ...

Although I'd like nothing better then to claim that gem as my own, it troubled

me that such fine words had no author.  So I went back to Google where I'd initially

found it and kept searching, but this time using the first line of the poem and not

the key words  winter solstice  for the search terms. 

And there it was - reprinted in the book section of 

the Los Angeles Times newspaper in the summer of 1991.

I also discovered that the first two lines of the original poem

had been dropped from all the copies circulating the internet;

I have added them back.

In addition, the original contained no capital letters in the body 

and no line spaces - I've revised those as well.

So .... here is the poem in its original, true form.

Thank You to my friend for raising the question that sent me on

a quest for ownership.  Ms. Aliesan deserves this credit and now I can give it.