The Light Returns

How curious

that when winter

begins,

and it is

the darkest and coldest time,

the light

is returning.

At our house

on the hill,

the sun cannot touch

our door or backyard

from November

to February.

We will not receive

the light these months.

The days must lengthen

before the sun’s reach will

extend to where

we and the chickens

live.

This year,

in the peculiarity

of weather and

climate change,

my flowering ginger

continues to burst

into bloom throughout

the dim month of

December.

The little stalk of  plumeria

I brought home from

the Big Island of Hawaii

and nursed for

so many years,

has also chosen to

flower abundantly

for the first time.

So, here,

in this dark season,

in this dark time,

when helicopters fill

the night sky of Oakland,

and my friends say

they, too, have trouble conjuring

the Christmas spirit,

my endarkened house

is filled with

the scents of paradise,

and the light

returns.

Winter Solstice, 2014