First Snow

I woke up to a magical winter wonderland on Monday December 12 2023. Every year as climate change creeps upon us, I wonder when the last snow I see will be. I took a walk around my neighborhood and captured the beauty.

“PRIOR: A sunny winter's day, warm and cold at once. The sky's a little hazy, so the sunlight has a physical presence, a character. In autumn, those trees across the lake are yellow, and the sun strikes those most brilliantly. Against the blue of the sky, that sad fall blue, those trees are more light than vegetation.”

-From the Epilogue of Angels In America by Tony Kushner

WINTERING CAROL

Here's a sketch for a song I wrote this evening! I wanted to give it a winter holiday vibe without being explicitly Christmas-y. Secular coziness is my vibe. A solemn and prayerful winter solstice observation. Can't wait to flesh it out and record!

Make a memory to remember

Give it harmony and rhyme

We'll go galloping through December

Hold fast through shadow time

Lilac twilight sunset burning

Lately falling into night

The wheel of time keeps turning

Go forward towards the light

As the tide wanders back

And the winter winds blow cold

May you find and mend the crack

Inside the walls of your soul

Rest easy when you're weary

And rise when you are strong

Find peace in where you are,

And know where you come from

Within every breath and heartbeat

There lives a mighty song

Within every time you tell it

The wisdom carries on

Within every seed you planted

Tended daily 'till it's strong

Within every choice a miracle

Bringing you where you belong

Beaver Moon

Here's a poem sketched during shadow work, wanted to share. Leave a comment with your takeaway.

Your cupboard of beans.
Bitter black burning you awake.
Cornmeal grinds away your guts.
Torn from your roots. Eviscerated.

Plunge under your pouring water.
Icy bright intensity flares your senses.
Sudden shock of your misstep.
Your shoulders unable to shrug any more.

Patch together your quilt.
Mend your busted seams.
Your hands make do with what's on hand.
Your smattering of matter and bones.

You build it alone and afraid.
You can scream the whole time.
Easier to swallow once you chew.
Shadow shrinks at solar noon.