#260: Winter Poems + 2023 Round-up
Hello there.
‘Tis the season to shed all the self-loathing, stay warm under the blankets, and keep those unfulfilled dreams and resolutions aside. The longest night of the year draws nearer as we begin our march into the great unknown that is 2024 with a sense of brave curiosity.
Are you looking forward to the year ahead?
Has this year been tolerable?
Is it cold where you’re reading this newsletter, and if so, are you warm enough?
Poetry Corner
December 21 by Ted Kooser
Perfectly still this solstice morning,
in bone-cracking cold. Nothing moving,
or so one might think, but as I walk the road,
the wind held in the heart of every tree
flows to the end of each twig and forms a bud.
Winter Afternoon, Early December by Tom Montag
The grey lid has been
lifted off the day.
Sun spills everywhere—
on snow, on house, on
me at the window.
No wind in the willow,
no birds in bare branches,
no sadness in the absence.
Only the shine, instead,
the spin and dalliance
of every amazing
particular thing
in the long, the lovely
the almost perfect light.
The Round by Stanley Kunitz
Light splashed this morning
on the shell-pink anemones
swaying on their tall stems;
down blue-spiked veronica
light flowed in rivulets
over the humps of the honeybees;
this morning I saw light kiss
the silk of the roses
in their second flowering,
my late bloomers
flushed with their brandy.
A curious gladness shook me.
So I have shut the doors of my house,
so I have trudged downstairs to my cell,
so I am sitting in semi-dark
hunched over my desk
with nothing for a view
to tempt me
but a bloated compost heap,
steamy old stinkpile,
under my window;
and I pick my notebook up
and I start to read aloud
the still-wet words I scribbled
on the blotted page:
“Light splashed . . .”
I can scarcely wait till tomorrow
when a new life begins for me,
as it does each day,
as it does each day.
Nights in the Neighborhood by Linda Gregg
I carry joy as a choir sings,
but quietly as the dark
carols. To keep the wind away
so the hidden ones will come
out into the street and add
themselves to this array of
stars, constellations and moon.
I notice the ones in pain
shine more than the others.
It’s so they can be found,
I think. Found and harbored.
Sweeter Than Today by Elya Braden
I keep the ginger too long.
It shrivels inside its snug, red mesh bag
in the blue bowl
on my speckled kitchen counter
with the sweet yellow onions,
the bulbed garlic cloves,
and a solitary potato sprouting
tender green buds, its allover eyes
watching me, asking me, When?
Each morning I glance at the ginger
and imagine myself peeling it, slicing it,
releasing its pungent flesh,
boiling water in the crimson kettle
on the black stove and pouring
the steaming liquid over the spicy root,
steeping its essence,
quartering a fresh Meyer lemon picked
from the gnarled tree in my backyard,
squeezing the juice, licking
the tart, sticky residue off my fingers.
But instead, I measure six cups of water
into the stainless-steel coffeemaker,
scoop six dark tablespoons of pre-ground
beans from the airtight canisters
nested in the refrigerator door,
flip the “on” switch and wait. It’s easier this way.
The thought of all that peeling and slicing,
boiling and pouring, picking and quartering
and squeezing overwhelms me in the morning,
when it’s all I can do to find my glasses,
bundle myself into my winter robe,
don my sheepskin slippers,
and tromp down the stairs
into the morning chill. So why
do I hold on to this daily fantasy of ginger tea
as I watch the ginger shrivel with age and neglect?
It’s not too late, I must tell myself each day.
I can still do it tomorrow. Is this how I stayed,
one day, then another, and another
in a withered marriage, imagining a tomorrow
steeped in warmth, sweeter and spicier than today?
Links I Devoured
WHAT by Woshibai (Loved this comic!)
Hundred-Fifty Dollar Drawings by Nina Paley (Going to do this someday!)
Not a fan of NFTs but Camp Cosmos’ world building is so damn delish.
2023 Round-up
Best shows of the year
The Bear S2
You’re The Worst
Hilda S3
Beef
Will Trent
Jubilee
Mo
Spy Family
Lupin
Best films of the year
Fingernails
Jaya jaya jaya jaya hey
Babylon
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
Fremont
Best finds of the year (Music)
Locked Club (Thanks, S)
JW Francis
Little Simz
Joy Orbison
Wet Leg
Barry Can’t Swim
+ my Spotify Top Songs 2023 Playlist, in case anyone’s interested
Sitting on these newsletters has given me SO much joy this year.
Thank you for letting me in!
Here’s to warm wintering,
Rohini
Lovely choices this month!
Hello - I found your newsletter during a recent google search and was so touched that you included my poem, Sweeter Than Today, especially alongside such beautiful poems by Linda Gregg, Ted Kooser, and Stanley Kunitz! I don't know how you found it, but I'm glad it moved you and thank you for sharing it.