12/20/2015

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 
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.




19 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas, Christie
    The days grow longer now...it makes me happy to know spring is on the way. I want to blink and find winter gone.
    xx, Carol

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    1. May the winter be not too long or dark for you, Carol. Soon enough we will all be weeding again!
      My very warmest wishes of the season to you & yours.

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  2. i sit here in my solstice house, candle lit, eating soup, and waiting, moving through the deep dark. thank you for reminding. thank you for the photo, too.

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    1. Do you pad around in your socks as I do? I wear two pairs & am well cushioned from chilly spots in the house that way. And I make soup, too ;>)) Best of the season to you, Velma.

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    2. ha! soup and padding around, but i wear wooly socks with birkenstocks. too many downright drafts in this old farmhouse. plus splinters!

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  3. Thank you for posting both your beautiful photo and these heart centered words and thank you for going back and finding her and honoring her. Today feels warmer and even lighter because of you.

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    1. What a very kind thing to say, Thank You, Mary Ann. Finding her was a small effort really, but somehow feels larger than my original intent. That's the best of the interpixies I think, the way one thing - or one person - can lead us to another and before we know it the story is much deeper than the first rough lines...
      May you have joyous holidays, with good health & good company!

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  4. Incredible words! Although I am rarely alone -- I sort of enjoy the 'alone' feeling of the Winter Solstice. It gathers me inward (not a bad place to be) and allows me to do good things for myself - more reading, more chocolate, long delicious cups of tea... Thank you for sharing this.

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    1. I'm with ya there, Penny ... I enjoy 'alone' much more than 'with' people ;>) With dogs is groovy, tho. And you're welcome, glad you enjoyed it.

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  5. Beautiful photo, and poem. I always wonder too, when I see Anonymous, and want to go on a search. SOMEONE wrote it. So happy you found the original author, that makes all the difference. This poem came at the right time for me, having recently suffered a serious heart issue, this feels like a balm to my heart. Haven't been reading blogs much lately, so glad I came by yours today.

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    1. So glad you did, too, Barbara. Thank you for the lovely note and I wish you good health & glad tidings of the season. Take good care, all my best to you.

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  6. So many beautiful (inadequate word) things - poems, photos, videos - show up on the internet in anonymous form, and always they make me sad, curious, frustrated. Thank you for taking the time to track this one down, and for restoring it to the original form.

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    1. Have learned a valuable lesson through this recent search and that is to NEVER accept 'anonymous' or 'unknown' when I see it on the internet until I do a proper search for words within the contents of the piece. One of my biggest complaints about sites like Pinterest, for example, is the laziness [or maybe apathy] of all the cross-posting users who don't give proper credit where credit is due and then suddenly, pieces of work are "unknown artist"! Crazy-making, for me. I'll spare you the rest of that rant ;>)) Somehow, I think I felt a little bit of justice served with this one. Thanks so much for your comment!

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  7. Oh! I <3 this poem. Thank you so much for sharing. I can now search out the author, too.

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  8. i love that you returned the heartfelt wise poem to it's original offering and that you found the author as well.

    your photo is magically beautiful.

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