Northern Hemisphere version
At last, the winter solstice’s passed,
The sun creeps up the arc,
And lengthened days set free those yens
That shrank beneath the dark.
Released from artificial zeal
We, finally, pursue
The joys inflaming life that’s real,
And aims avoiding rue.
Face it, the manufactured glee
That adumbrates year’s death,
Proclaims a baleful, yearning plea
For light and warmth and breath.
Embrace good sense, turn out the dark,
Stop forcing bright on bleak!
Let’s celebrate the summer’s spark,
Rejoice in sunlight’s peak!
And if (for pagans’ sake) we must
Mark solstice for His birth—
He wouldn’t mind June twenty-first,
And summer-time’s charmed mirth.
(1/1/10)