Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice

At the dog-end of the year,
as darkness seeps into the day,
and we are short-changed on light,
a robin sings out the night.

Jane Aldous


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DUSK Solstice Shorts Festival 2017

Image
DUSK: Solstice Shorts 2017 Originating in Greenwich, on the Prime Meridian, and now in its 4th year, Solstice Shorts is  going  nationwide. The theme this year is Dusk, that time between day and night when everything changes. On  21st December Dusk  starts in the UK in the  far  NE (Shetland) at  16:53  and finishes in the far SW (Cornwall) at  18:21 , taking between 40 and 50 minutes depending where you are. We have  twelve sites across the UK  all reading/singing  different  material (chosen by us, read by actors/ sung by musicians) starting In  Ellon, Aberdeenshire  and ending In  Redruth, Cornwall , taking in key spots in between. All events BSL Interpreted Tickets : Generally by donation, suggested £3, but there are exceptions where this is part of a bigger event. The performances will match the timing of (Astronomical) Dusk exactly, with a  live stream  on Facebook....
Read more

Poetry about birds.

All summer we have been watching a family of gulls bring up three fledglings. We overlook the nest site on top of the Harley-Davidson garage opposite King's Buildings (Edinburgh University) and one reason we became so keen to observe the birds' progress was that one of the fledglings had clearly injured a wing and looked much weaker than its siblings. Phoning the SSPCA Wildlife Rescue Centre gave us hope although the kindly Wildlife Officer was very clear that unless the bird fell off the roof and someone was able to put a box on top of it they would be unable to rescue the bird in such a potentially dangerous situation. However she did say that sometimes young injured birds can heal themselves. After several weeks of observing the gulls and watching the injured one gradually gain weight and strength we we still full of uncertainty as to whether it would be able to fly. The other two fledglings had progressed from fly-jumps across the roof to get food from the very attentive ad...
Read more

How to do Rejection

I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been writing poetry seriously for about 10 years so although I'm soon going to be receiving my State Pension in writing terms I'm a relative adolescent. Therefore in common with every other writer I'm learning to deal with rejection and when I'm feeling reasonably sanguine and philosophical I can almost convince myself that I'm not that disappointed. But of course having your batch of poems which you carefully submitted months ago to a well regarded poetry magazine is bound to feel upsetting.  I've had some successes with poetry competitions and poetry magazines but as my rejection letters accumulate,I've reflected about the value that each editor places on communicating rejection and how that feels as a recipient of their subjective judgments. Editors vary hugely in their responses from nothing at all...ever, to returning poems with a blank compliment slip and as happened yesterday a letter from the editor...
Read more