Overwintering Soul Poetry

At a recent online workshop I offered, “The Overwintering Soul”  participants wrote “eight minute” poems about “Stillness” or “Darkness” as reflections for the Winter Solstice 2023.
Here is a compilation of beautiful poems written by authors who kindly shared their inspirations:

Stillness

Stillness wraps me close.

I feel soothed like velvet

on my cheek, held in

the hand of wisdom.

I reach deep, listening

to the quiet of my soul.

By LMD

Stillness

Blessed stillness

Soft, sweet, spacious, and deep

Become one with me

As I discover

Peace, clarity, and gratitude

By Milly Gilin

Darkness 

It’s quiet and deep. It is

the beginning of everything, it is

all in that vast emptiness

It tastes like blood, like

the matter from which life

can start, it tastes like mud,

grains of sand on my tongue, and

the Grand Potter is rolling his sleeves up…

It smells – oh it does! –

like that rich beef broth, the base

for Ukrainian borsch, that gives warmth

and fullness, that feeds the bodies of all of us

it touches like a warm milk bath,

black milk bath it does

It looks like depths in the pupil

of the eye of a lover.

It looks like endless possibilities

like Encore! like Bravo!

it tells me the secrets of being the secret

of life unfolding, the secret

of love never failing.

It changes nothing and

changes everything

daily

I do not have wishes

in the face of this darkness.

There’s nothing to wish for,

just be.

Be.

By Masha Liashenko 

Darkness

Deep smokey clouds

Thunder rolls

Salt burns my tongue

Enlivens my taste buds

A new flavor

Eyes sparkle

Dark space breaks open

I free-fall willingly

Into heavy blackness

Warm and protected

Non-seeing

Non-feeling

Non-hearing

Darkness transformed into

Fireworks and love songs

By Doris Boyle

Stillness

Lake Michigan slaps gently at my ankles

Gently my toes sink into the soft, wet sand  Gently the birds sing to me, to each other, to the wind.

The wind many shades of blue, all the shades of blue, the blues of this inland sea and the great above.

The wind gently throws my hair over my face, a cloak of protection.  I stand, I sink, stillness envelopes me Gently.

By Charlotte Rozich, LMT

Stillness

Let me sweeten your life

Come rest your soul

In rooms you have yet to visit

Let me bring you home to a comfort you will taste

Like no other flavour you have known

I feel your longing

I know your light and darkness

And I bless you with the joy of still presence

By Sue Coltman (Pankiewicz)

Darkness

You’re gone and I’m plunged into darkness again

The world has lost colour

It sings in dismal minor chords

And all smells dank and fusty

Even the flowers that kind people send

There is the constant bitter taste of tannin

I live on tea and forget to eat

A dark bottomless pool

swells in my chest and draws me

Down,

Down,

Down into its depths

Light has gone from my day

The sky tries to comfort me

Sends dark, heavy blankets of clouds

That cover the sun and block out the stars

And yet…..

You send rays of sun

tinkling wind chimes

unexpected white feathers

And yet ….

The darkness can no longer break me

Yes, twenty years ago I snapped

in two like a brittle twig

Now I can bend like the pliant sapling

And know this too shall pass.

By Justine Croft

In Stillness 

Sounds are alive, unexpected and entertaining

Smells are fresh, layered and enlivening

It feels light, airy and comforting

In Stillness

There is delight in the universe

The secret it holds is brilliance

I feel the love and I am home by the fire

In Stillness

I am wrapped in love

I am invigorated

I am

By Karen Miller Williams

Stillness

My stilled soul rests under the blind old moon

Paddling in her silent invisible waves

Inhaling the berry rippling juiciness of her sassy attitude

Savouring her Napa valley winey richness

And as her manyana waves of moonlight

Roll ambiently to and fro.  

Pooling around my feet

Like a Momma stroking her baby’s downy cheek

She looks on in true Mona Lisa style.

Whispering her stilled secret

Of a life bursting with love

And . . . as my grief slows down to infinity.

I wish that every soul had a still of this secret.

By Anni, Ant’s Mum

Stillness

Branches bare

on trees planted with hope

of sipping iced tea

in a hammock

in the rocking chair

of the winter of our lives

In the stillness, I see the wind

rustling bare branches without

leaves clinging,

I hear voices like phantoms

invisible to the eyes

thunderous to the heart.

By Lina Lambert

Stillness

Stillness surrounding me

Grounding me

Giving me the chance to remember

The stillness I used to know and love.  ❤️

By Susan

 Stillness

Still.

Rolls

Off my tongue,

Like Silence.

Sightless secret,

Fills me within.

Stillness stands beneath my Being,

Is the me who is not me.

A light in the dark,

The dark in the night

That lies still in my heart.

By Sarah Hook-Nilsson

Darkness

As the dusk light fades, I’m alone in the darkness

I sit in a quiet space, silent and still

The layers of darkness wash over me, taking away my bitterness and drying my tears

Here in the darkness I face the truth of who I am

I see before me the years I lost and the time I wasted

I break the chains of my life and let go of the once warm safety blanket now musty, old and worn

I embrace the freedom of the night, the stillness of the stars and the darkness of my soul

I am free

By Trish Pomeroy