the other Chanukah poem

This is more what I wanted to say this year, though I’m not sure it’s as good a poem. I may still tinker with it.

Some darkness is only the absence of light
Sacred, cyclical
Clean and empty
Time to rest and gather in before regrowth.

A candleflame honors it –
Contrast, counterpoint
Dimming and flaring
Centring and setting off its velvet black.

Other darkness surges and seeks to overtake
Encroaching, enveloping
Resentment and envy
Quenching light and life in rot and death

A candle resists it –
Holding off, diminishing
Dancing, yet steadfast
Where it stands, the dark does not prevail.

In any kind of darkness, light a candle.

This is 2018, which means I’ve been writing Chanukah light-in-darkness poems for ten years now. (Possibly longer; I need to check my old Moveable Type blog that preceded the WordPress one.) Trolling the archives of this blog, I’ve found 18 Chanukah poems – I didn’t write any in 2011, but wrote 2 or 3 many years. Is that enough for a chapbook?

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

pre-emptive nostalgia

There are few things sillier than pre-emptive nostalgia. I’m a bit sad that my holiday season is almost over, and my actual holiday hasn’t even started yet.

Maybe it’s because “holidays” are a long and complicated season for me; this year included a Diwali event where my choir sang the Star Spangled Banner, gift buying, my mom and brother’s birthdays, Chanukah candle lighting, exchanging a couple presents with Ted (my family tends to run late) and still to come, buying and decorating a Christmas tree, time at the lake house, a visit from my in-laws, Christmas dinner and presents and biggest deal of all, time off from work! So by that rationale it is half over, even though the biggest parts are yet to come.

Or maybe saudade or hiraeth are better words for what I’m feeling, in which case it all makes more sense – that beautiful strain of sadness that adds piquancy to times of the greatest happiness, like the tradition of smashing a glass at a wedding.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.