Flowers For Socrates

by Nona Blyth Cloud

Through the small tall bathroom window
the December yard is gray and scratchy,
the tree calligraphic.
………………………… – Dave Eggers

The view from Dave Eggers’ bathroom window is a close match to the view from my kitchen window. Most trees here in Southern California don’t shed their leaves, but my neighbor’s fig tree does, and our long-dead grass, unwatered in the drought, is a graying yellow stubble interrupted by dying weeds.

No matter where you live in the Northern Hemisphere, December is a month with at least some days where most of the color has been bled out of the view from your window. No wonder this last month of the year should be a universal time of holidays with uplifting music, merry-making things to eat or drink, and bright colors.

Winter Solstice, Hannukah, Christmas and all the other celebrations are about Light. From lighting candles to lightening the burdens of others, they are our stand against the Dark outside our windows.
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Winter-Time

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding cake.

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