Quiet the restless mind, still the surge of emotion. Let this hour belong to the One who grants the gift. Leave the drunkards at their

Slow to awaken, slow to follow bear from winter’s cave, as redbuds leaf and plum trees flower the deep earth signal. Hungry for light I

Dragons of the defiled mind roar against spring tree flowers, breathe fire upon the sleeping. Death, death it is their horrid voices croak, as mountain

The slow light of morning slips into awakening with secrets of the dawn, of silence stored in mountain caves lined with walls of ice, flowing

When snow covers the valley the time is here to slow down, to let earth’s winter rhythm seep into the deep-celled longing of the body

I shelter with trees below cold wet ground, what’s left above leafless, without color. Burrowing in soft earth, I find roots of peace woven to

Into the quiet dark I commit my messengers, the soul survivors of desperate folly. Send word to the wanderers; they must hear of the rising

Snow covered hills under winter’s blanket, where I wake in a foreign land with trees of ash and oak, bare branched like veins in the

Drunk on starlight I stumble in the temple, my voice loud in praise of Aldebaran and Sirius. I doubt I will ever be sober, the

I rise and fall the ancient way, from root to leaf and back to earth; the road I tread these autumn years, without desire or

In the quiet dark earth nurtures her future below the cold wet ground. Forests wait in embryo, plants and flowers and the vastness of green

Welcome darkness, fear and blight, welcome suffering, welcome night. Welcome the beautiful, desert and seas, welcome the mountains, welcome the trees. Welcome ignorance, violence and

Dropping like rain, I fall into a new year of starless nights and wet gray dawns, when crows return to silent evergreens as I search

Down I go the solstice ladder to the crib where phantoms dwell, wearing the cloth of my familiar they cut and tear, so heartless in

Christmas 2024 Voices joined in the dark, singing out the word of life, open and receive the birth of light, gift forever to the living.