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 the gloom.
I can’t save them, no one can,
but in the night work
of suffering and separation,
soulful needles pierce the lie,
threads of compassion
draw the riven cloth.
Welcome the dark chamber,
the repository of error,
where careless words
and bitter feelings burn
upon the yuletide fire;
come now the return of light.
photograph by Louis MacKenzie
Reading of “Solstice Ladder” with music by Jean Sibelius
Don, thank God for the ending. Quite a photo from Lou, too.
Living in the dark chamber of the phantoms of the night may be unavoidable. It is the assurance of the coming of the dawn that allows the soul to rest.
The light can’t come quick enough! Come light come, and release your brilliance upon mankind once again.
Don, you have articulated the state of the world in Stygian darkness without and within, and in the midst of that sown the seed of light and ascension into the fullness of that. In the nine months to come may we all and the worlds we center come evermore into that creative fulfillment to come in the equinox into that balance of illumined consciousness and a wholesome creative darkness for the sowing of the next cycle of clarification, for the evening and the morning are wed in the cycles of creation in our journey in the arms of the sun. Blessings to you.
Boom! You make it look like a simple lyric, but you are using so many special poetry moves: internal slant rhyme (ladder/ dwell/ tear for example), extended metaphor (needles/ pierce/ threads/ cloth), a clear structure very close to a sonnet where you set up the situation, turn on the volte, and take it all the way home.
My favorite lines:
soulful needles pierce the lie,
threads of compassion
draw the riven cloth.
Because you use a seriously old-fashioned word that nobody uses any more, “riven,” and place it where it seems like no other word would do. Good rhythm control, as well. Well done!
No hiding as far as the heart that chooses to move beyond mercy .
The red hot flames fuel that passion for the Light of Love to declare these days in righteous Ownership.
Thanks Don, until we know the darkness within, we cannot fully know the light. What a relief to accept the wholeness of being and realize we actually are the light, illusion be gone with awareness of truth of eternal being.