Winter Solstice
by Hilda Morley
A cold night crosses
our path
The world appears
very large, very
round now extending
far as the moon does
It is from
the moon this cold travels
It is
the light of the moon that causes
this night reflecting distance in its own
light so coldly
(from one side of
the earth to the other)
It is the length of this coldness
It is the long distance
between two points which are
not in a line now
not a
straightness (however
straight) but a curve only,
silver that is a rock reflecting
not metal
but a rock accepting
distance
(a scream in silence
where between the two
points what touches
is a curve around the world
(the dance unmoving).
NEW YORK, 1969
Cassidy B. Charles 