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On Sunday, December 21st, the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the shortest day of the year, and the longest night. A time of renewal and the coming of light, the day holds special meaning for local poet Joanna Yonder.

“I think observing solstice can be permission to yourself to understand that this is a time of hibernation and that brighter and more energetic days are ahead,” Yonder said. “But it’s also OK to rest and go inward a little bit.”

In honor of the winter solstice, Yonder shared her poem “Frost”.

Frost

Right now, it is winter:

All things come and go.

Do not forget that one day

you’ll again go out

into the gentle garden.

It will be golden hour.

You will grow whatever plants you wish.

For now,

hold fast against the raging of the storm,

the gale, the dark.

This is their season-but you,

you have many ways of staying warm.

Draw close now, stoke the fire,

and hold the ones that love you. Tell each other

of the sun to come,

the seasons coming round,

fierce and inexorable.

Count your seeds, polish your gleaming spade

against the keenness of the tempest.

Rest and become ready.

For now, it is winter:

all things come and go.

The soil is there, beneath

the snow, the ice, the wind.

Do not forget its softness.

Draw near to the fire tonight

and become a friend to hardness when you must,

but do not forget the softness of the earth.

• Joanna Yonder, November 2024