The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising) And so the Shortest Day came and the year died And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned … Read more
From December 3rd through the 9th, a delegation of modern Pagans and Witches from across the globe are gathered in Melbourne, Australia for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. They are representing organizations like Covenant of the Goddess, the Temple of Ara, EarthSpirit, Cherry Hill Seminary, Earth Traditions, Circle Sanctuary, Solar Cross, the Pagan Federation, … Read more
To Autumn by William Blake O Autumn, Laden with fruit, and stain’d With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest, And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe, And all the daughters of the year shall dance! Sing now the lusty song of fruits … Read more
Will We Open the Heavens By Robin Williamson Let me be where love is born to sail upon a scallop shell the way no hair of a thought is disturbed and the sight is still as moonlight clasps each leaf of a tree of dust until it knows it is alive and lives to be … Read more
PRAISE SONG by Barbara Crooker from Radiance Praise the light of late November, the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones. Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees; though they are clothed in night, they do not despair. Praise what little there’s left: the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls, shells, the … Read more
Leonids Over Us by Marge Piercy The sky is streaked with them burning hole in black space — like fireworks, someone says all friendly in the dark chill of Newcomb Hollow in November, friends known only by voices. We lie on the cold sand and it embraces us, this beach where locals never go in … Read more
Peace of Sonoma County © Dana HawleyThe Love of OctoberW. S. Merwin A child looking at ruins grows youngerbut coldand wants to wake to a new nameI have been younger in Octoberthan in all the months of springwalnut and may leaves the colorof shoulders at the end of summera month that has been to the … Read more
Late Meadow with Full Moon© Therese DesjardinMeadow TurfJanet Lewis (1899 – 1998) Goldenrod, strawberry leaf, small bristling aster, allLoosestrife, knife-bladed grasses, lacing their roots, lacingThe life of the meadow into a deep embraceFar underground, and all their shoots, wet at the base,With shining dew, dry-crested with sun,Springing out of a mould years old;Leaves, living and … Read more
Kopis’taya (A Gathering Of Spirits) by Paula Gunn Allen Because we live in the browning season the heavy air blocking our breath, and in this time when living is only survival, we doubt the voices that come shadowed on the air, that weave within our brains certain thoughts, a motion that is soft, imperceptible, a … Read more
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy,a quickening that is translatedthrough you into action. And because there is only one of you in all of time,this expression is unique.And if you block it, it will never exist throughany other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your … Read more