It is indeed the
darkest evening of the year,
the sun’s brief arc hiding behind clouds, a
thicket, and snow.
I exhale archangels and seraphim into the gray
air,
my boots planted deep in white winter
frost.
There is stillness in all directions, the
coming silent night
already bearing down with noiseless labor
pain
that calculates what is gained and what is
lost,
astrology having served its final purpose for
the kings.
The wagon ruts of a poet who paused to
think of miles
runs to the veiled village east of here
and the woods,
an incarnation of the should that in the
snowfall sings.
There will be the usual death despite the
sap beneath
already contemplating its impossible rise.
A sudden keen wind causes my mind to sift
memories
of what has transpired since I was a
sapling dreaming of years,
of a long road that has led me to this
evening prime.
In the village, a single bell tolls
Christmas time,
Such is love.
Such is the meaning of a gift, many decades old,
that is again unwrapped by the fire when the day
is cold.
It is time to move on from this cathedral of dusk,
for a new dusting has filled the sky with the heavenly host.
The evening has been my scripture, chapter and verse.
At home I will light a candle in this dark but expanding universe.
~William Hammett
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