Small Stones for Jan. 29 through 31, 2016

 

Jan. 29 2016

I wake to the ubiquitous white blanket, white page, unmarred

by footprint or by word. My eyes crave a prism, the sparkle

of diamonds in sunlight, they’d even settle for sunbeams passing

through white sapphire, through crystal, rhinestone, even cut glass,

anything but this flat white under grey sky that greets

morning upon morning.

 

 

Jan. 30 2016

Yesterday, a call-in show. Today, a blog post,

both focus energy on questions of astrology and how

some days our lives attune to messages from the stars, while

other times nothing goes according to the plan.

Both radio and blog remind me there is more to it

than merely sun sign. The planets, too, rise and recede,

and what moon sign held sway at the hour we arrived?

How much weight to give such influences, when

as a woman, I know the moon-tide’s cycles hold sway

just as the moon affects the high and low tides of the sea.

And I wonder how the elements of fire, water, earth and air

reveal themselves in the twelve signs of the zodiac.

How does the Ram, a creature of the earth, manifest itself

instead as Fire? How is the Water-bearer, Aquarius a being of Air?

And how much weight does any of it have on the story of my life?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jan. 31 2016

While we sleep, the Earth rotates east

In January the obliquity of the ecliptic offers days

where darkness falls too soon. It’s an illusion that

days grow shorter as we age: in truth a century ago

Earth’s time to complete its daily rotation 1.7 milliseconds

shorter than today.  And time still flies.  Already,

I have entered February, working on the news for

the coming fortnight. Already, I have thought past

Valentine’s Day, contemplated the coming of March

and its changeability from lamb into lion or lion into lamb.

I am not wishing the days by, although I long for

the return of green. With it will come another birthday.

If I might wish for anything, it is to stop counting.

CAS