#125: The Winter Solstice Edition :)
Hello reader,
I'm writing this newsletter from my cozy little apartment in Bangalore. My oolong tea is by my side, the chrysanthemum is in full bloom and I'm feeling hopeful today.
It’s the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and a time to let go of everything holding you back, of surrendering to the darkness to let the light shine through. A dear friend and healer Ruth recently told me about the significance of the Solstice, and invited me to light a candle, set an intention for my future, and send it out into the Universe. I did that this evening, and can already feel something shift deep within.
I invite you all towards the light with these poems on winter, following the light and the Solstice:
1. Winter Solstice by Tess Jolly
I will not write about Christmas lights garlanding the tree,
how steadily red blends to sapphire emerald gold,
how strong the little bulbs must be to throw their dancing hearts
upon the café wall, how children try to catch them.
I will not say there is tinsel draped about the branches
like seaweed over pebbles, nor paint the cloths swaddling our skins
apricot, indigo, violet, teal. I will not speak of glazed
pastries on the counter, how they shine so much
they could be varnished, there for the hell-of-it, for the sheer
beauty of their glistening berries. I’ll turn away from buses heaving
down the rush-hour road, ignore how in all this rain
the headlamps could be tumbling garnets, polished amber,
as if a picture-book box of pirate treasure had spilt its pearls
and precious stones across a tarmacked page.
I will not describe how the sun becomes the sea, I will not delight
in words to name its colours – cerise, crimson, indigo,
scarlet, madder, rose. I will not try to find a way
to show your smile across the table, how it slips like warm charcoal
into the fabric of my heart. I will not suggest I light a candle
as the year prepares to wane, that you hold a second wick to mine
then another and another, that together we whisper a prayer
for each growing flame. I will not talk about the light
that is everywhere, how far you have to travel for the sky
to be completely black (and even then there are stars, there is the moon’s
borrowed brightness). I will not question why fire burns more fiercely
before sputtering out, or how – when we know we’re dying –
we can be so fully alive. I will not say these things because this
is a poem about darkness. I am writing about the darkness.
2. a poem by Wendell Berry
"To go into the dark with a light
is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark,
go without sight.
And find
that the dark too
blooms and sings
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings."
3. The Solstice by W. S. Merwin
They say the sun will come back
at midnight
after all
my one love
but we know how the minutes
fly out into
the dark trees
and vanish
like the great ‘ohias and the honey creepers
and we know how the weeks
walk into the
shadows at midday
at the thought of the months I reach for your hand
it is not something
one is supposed
to say
we watch the red birds in the morning
we hope for the quiet
daytime together
the year turns into air
but we are together in the whole night
with the sun still going away
and the year
coming back
4. Camomile Tea by Katherine Mansfield
Outside the sky is light with stars;
There’s a hollow roaring from the sea.
And, alas! for the little almond flowers,
The wind is shaking the almond tree.
How little I thought, a year ago,
In the horrible cottage upon the Lee
That he and I should be sitting so
And sipping a cup of camomile tea.
Light as feathers the witches fly,
The horn of the moon is plain to see;
By a firefly under a jonquil flower
A goblin toasts a bumble-bee.
We might be fifty, we might be five,
So snug, so compact, so wise are we!
Under the kitchen-table leg
My knee is pressing against his knee.
Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,
The tap is dripping peacefully;
The saucepan shadows on the wall
Are black and round and plain to see.
Recommended Listening:
1. Chai And Chill 091: Rohini Kejriwal (my full Boxout.FM mix is out!)
2. Andalucia - Andrew Bird
3. Tame Impala cover Edwyn Collins 'A Girl Like You'
4. The 50 Best TV Theme Songs of All Time
5. Painter Erin Hanson on Open-Impressionism and How She Got Her Start as an Artist
6. Winter Playlists For When You're Tired of Holiday Music
Links of the Week:
1. 7 Ingredients of Creativity
2. Six Ways to Think Long-term: A Cognitive Toolkit for Good Ancestors (An important read)
3. I have no tv (free documentaries, found on It's All Write)
4. finding home in the small rituals of daily devotion (I love maribeth so much)
5. Blob Opera, a delightful machine learning and music experiment
6. Sketchbooks of a 21 Year-Old World War II Soldier
7. The relationship between mental health and remembering (Or not remembering)
8. When the Earth Tilts Toward Hope
The Best of 2020 lists have begun! Here are my favorites so far:
-Giphy’s most-viewed gifs of the year
-52 things I learned in 2020
-Essential and Interesting 2020 Year-End Music Lists
-Brain Pickings' Favorite Books of 2020
-30 Best News Of 2020 Illustrated By Mauro Gatti
-The Best Inventions of 2020
This is my newsletter #21: Nidhi Shah
I loved this Sunday's edition of This is my newsletter by Nidhi Shah, founder of The Artlet Poetry on curiosity, learning and how creativity works. There's also lots of interesting reads, book recommendations and lots more!
Read her lovely newsletter here: https://thisismynewsletter.substack.com/p/this-is-my-newsletter-21-nidhi-shah
New in the journal:
1. Karuppi in Isolation by Akshaya Krishna
“The series came from wanting to build a visual narrative around the feeling of strangeness or dissociation you sometimes tend to feel in your most familiar settings. Be it a place you call home, your breakfast routine or the view you wake up to everyday.”
-Akshaya Krishna
See the full series here.
2. 29 by Bhawna Jaimini (excerpt)
Drink lots of coffee. It may give you
Acidity later but so will people doling
Out meaningful advices you will reject
Because you don’t like the shape of their
Nose. Allow only very few things
To destroy you. Let coffee be one of them.
Don’t fall in love with your cat. She will go
Missing leaving your heart in your month
Only to come back a few days later
Snuggling up to you on a cold rainy night.
Don’t give in. Resist the urge to love.
Read Bhawna's full poem here.
3. The Evolution of Thought While Being Quarantined by Sakeena Tayebji
“This is a series of 3d type illustration as a self-exploration project of the thoughts I am experiencing while being quarantined. The intention is to visualize words in a manner that they express these thoughts that most of us are feeling during the COVID-19' lockdown. The 3d medium allows me to create space, add a new sense of tactility to words, and use colour to depict moods and thoughts.”
-Sakeena Tayebji
Check out Sakeena's cool work here.
I’ll end this newsletter with a powerful quote by Albert Camus:
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
That's all for now, folks. If you see or read something beautiful this week, feel free to share it with me. :)
Bear hugs,
Rohini
P.S. I'm a BIG fan of Christmas, and will be sending out an additional short and sweet Christmas edition of the newsletter this Thursday for all you lovely people.
If you know someone who would appreciate this newsletter, do invite them to subscribe on Substack. You could also consider supporting The Alipore Post on Patreon / contribute via UPI to thealiporepost@okhdfcbank