Yule

Photo: (c) Jamie K. Reaser

How did the holly know it would need to color grey?

And the oak, that there was good reason to hold

auburn leaves this long?
Who told them of this cold darkness and our

unadmitted need for gods to thank?
This day of this season -
when the long-nights moon gives herself over,
I know how to hear the gasp of all the living things
that have been praying for the return of the light.
What I know too, and want to say, and want you to hear
is that with the sun arises a requisite attentiveness.

What is there, right there, to see?

Can you kneel down, humbled, and act upon a thing?

Can you find yourself blessed by any revelation?
Can you remember the unuttered agreement

that holds you steadfast?
What else is there but what is before us?
Mustn’t we tread this way though now we see it?

Though now we know?
Tell me you will greet me at dawn with joy.

~ Jamie K. Reaser, Author
From "Plant Songs" (a work in progress)

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