Out Before Dawn

 

 

Out before dawn on Solstice,
I enter the complete silence before the birds sing.
Not a branch, not a twig moves.
All is still but the filmy clouds passing slowly overhead.
One star reaches bravely for the Earth.
As the thin clouds slowly pass,
the Crescent Moon reveals Herself, jewel-like,
high overhead.
"Good morning, my darling!"  I call out,
holding the Moon close in my heart.
Saule the Sun has not yet appeared,
first greeting the lowlands
as She climbs slowly and deliberately
upward to our mountainous region.
A chickadee 'way high in the hemlocks,
and a sparrow,
call out to Saule in this icy cold,
just as in the warmth of June.
"Welcome, Saule, welcome Yule!" I sing in my heart,
bringing in the bright Sun and Her warmth
like a cousin, like a mother, like a friend.
The misty clouds move slowly by,
and the one star still reaches, loving us all. 

Annelinde Metzner

December 17, 2022

Black Mountain, North Carolina