Solstice triptych

Left panel
Reeds divide the wind
beside the shining mere.
Under a winter moon
sided sleet re-shapes the moor.
Even as the sky wheels,
the earth turns again,
begins the long hurtle into spring.


Centre panel
Here at the year's turning,
in the darkest time,
when earth lies stunned with cold,
birds fall unheeded in the night,
the fountain's tongues are stilled
and snow drifts, with leaves,
into corners of the yard,

I seem now at the end
to which I've always moved.

Weary and failing,
I look back across
the bleak sea-scoured reaches of my life
to remember the desolations of before
but see only the sunlit miles
of snow-filled shires lie fulgent
in the long low winter light.


Right panel
Light diffuse through crystal tracery.
Honey for breakfast,
drizzled onto crisp toast,
pooled with butter;
from my spoon spin
the remembered scents
of a locked summer.

Arthur Seeley