Hal Borland is one of my favorite authors. He lived a mere five or six miles from my home but I didn't find that out until he passed away. I often walk down the dirt road where his farm is located, trying to see what he saw through his eyes and through his words. My Sunday morning writing partner is also a Borland admirer. Here's her prompt for today's effort.
Balancing the Year.
"The short days are upon
us. It will be another week before the Winter solstice, but the day's change
now is slight. Daylight, sunrise to sunset, will shorten only another two
minutes or so before it begins to lengthen. The evening change, in fact, has
already begun; the year's earliest sunset is past; but sunrise will continue to
lag on through the year's end....We come to a long Winter night when the moon
rides full over a white world and the darkness thins away. For the full-moon night
is as long as the longest day of Summer, and the snowy world gleams and glows
with an incandescent shimmer.
Year to year, we remember
the short days, but we tend to forget the long nights when the moon rides high
over a cold and brittle-white world. Not only the moon nights, but the star
nights, when it seems one can stand on a hilltop and touch the Dipper. Who
would not cut wood and burn a candle for a few such nights a year?" - Hal
Borland, Sundial of the Seasons, Dec 16
PROMPT: Have a conversation with Hal, responding to his statements.
My Conversation
with Hal
Hal. The short days are upon
us.
Me. I’ve been noticing. I
sit with my book of an afternoon or I glance out the kitchen window and
darkness is swallowing the blue so I check the clock and it’s only 3:45 and I
think, “Already?” Of course full dark doesn’t descend until 4:45 or so but the
daylight gives way to dusk far earlier at this time of year. The earliest
sunset was on December 8th, almost two weeks before the solstice.
H.
It will be another week
before the Winter solstice, but the day's change now is slight. Daylight,
sunrise to sunset, will shorten only another two minutes or so before it begins
to lengthen.
M. And that’s why this is
my favorite time of year. The change is negligible but consistent – it’s more
than hopeful, it’s a certainty that the earth is turning once again toward
spring.
H. The evening change, in
fact, has already begun; the year's earliest sunset is past; but sunrise will
continue to lag on through the year's end....
M. …and that’s okay with
me. I like to waken in the predawn hours and watch the light spread across the
sky. Even on snowy days like today, the light creeps up the edges of the earth
and spills in my window.
H. We come to a long Winter
night when the moon rides full over a white world and the darkness thins away.
For the full-moon night is as long as the longest day of Summer, and the snowy
world gleams and glows with an incandescent shimmer.
M. I’ve been out of doors
on such nights when the earth seems to hold its breath and the only sounds are
of my own breathing and the pulse of my own warm blood. I walk the moonpath
then, ever watchful for night creatures – owl, fox, coyote. Only once have I
seen an owl, ghostly, silent, gliding from its perch in a tree I passed.
H. Year to year, we
remember the short days, but we tend to forget the long nights when the moon
rides high over a cold and brittle-white world.
M. Not all of us forget.
You don’t. I don’t. There are times I would have been happy to meet you in the
cold stillness and stand looking across the moonlit snow, knowing that this was
as right as the longest of summer days, this time of rest, of dormancy, of
renewal.
H. Not only the moon nights,
but the star nights, when it seems one can stand on a hilltop and touch the
Dipper. Who would not cut wood and burn a candle for a few such nights a year?
M. There is a sharp
satisfaction in being both inside and outside on such nights. The cold is
bracing, shivery, even cruel. To return to the warmth of a house where a fire
burns and a candle stirs the darkness is to know heaven in two realms.
