Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.
— Hans Christian Anderson
Bare
Trees yearn.
Setting sun
Whispers farewell.
Fall sleeps and winter stirs.
Winter Solstice parties
Shine fairy lights on all who dance
And sing.
Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This poem is a concrete poem. The poem takes a shape related to its subject matter. The Christmas Tree tradition is a lovely way to celebrate the longest night, with lots of twinkling lights, inside and out. Historically, pagans and pre-Christians decorated at midwinter with evergreen boughs. Decorating a tree became a popular Christian tradition in Germany in the 1800’s. Queen Victoria and her German husband, Prince Albert, later made tree decorating popular throughout the world.
The Winter Solstice in my neck of the woods is Sunday, December 21, 2014, 6:03 p.m. EST. North of the arctic, you get no sun at all, and south of the Antarctic Circle, they have the Midnight Sun, or 24 hours of sunlight. Either place is too cold for me. I’ll take my 4 p.m. sunset.
44 thoughts on “Happy Solstice!”
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Friendly Fairy Tales 
Brenda, this is the Solstice Sunset that I’ll put in my Welcome Page Sunset Gallery! It’s lovely through the trees! Thank you. Christine
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Yeah! The clouds that night were stunning. I took that at my kids’ school.
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What for a nice poem. Greetings and a happy 2015 from Germany!
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Greetings from New England! Some of my ancestors came from Germany long ago. Thanks for your nice words. Happy 2015!
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What a lovely piece. I was happy to read after perceiving a tree shaped poem that it was meant to be a tree :). Love it!
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Thanks! 🙂 I’m glad you saw the shape right away. 🙂
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My best wishes for a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! With love Maxima
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Maxima, Thanks!! I am just finishing up a Christmas post. Peace and Joy to you and yours! Warmly, Brenda
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What a beautiful way to greet the solstice, Brenda! Happy Winter Solstice and New Moon! 🙂
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Thanks, Marina. Your picture smiles down at me where I blog. I was delighted to find the smily-face in the sky, the bit left white. 🙂 I hadn’t noticed it on the website. Happy holidays!
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🙂 !!!! [added bonus! I did say it was accompanied by a big smile! 😉 ] Happy Holidays to you too, my dear. 🙂
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This is so beautiful Brenda, I love your shaped poem. 🙂
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Thanks! I love to do shaped poems, but I’m afraid they are not easy!
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I loved this Brenda 🙂 The concrete shape is so clever, and I liked the addition of the Hans Christian Andersen quote. I’ve noticed snow falling on your blog and others. How do you make it snow?
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Oh, that’s in the dashboard somewhere. I forget where. It’ll only last until New Year’s day. It’s an option you check, that you want it to snow.
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Thanks – I found it under Setting- general 🙂
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Good, then you are in time to enjoy some snow. 🙂
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Happy Solstice…lovely poem…love holiday greetings to you and your family:)
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Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family. 🙂
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Merry and Blessings to you, the poem is beautiful and I love the creative use of outline.
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Thanks! 🙂
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wol sorry I am so late in visiting!nderfu
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Hugs!
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ah, yes. and to you and your fairy clan as well )
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LOL
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Great poem! I’m trying to tell myself that spring is just around the corner now.
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It’s a day closer! 🙂
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Lovely words, beautiful inspirational photo
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If you lived closer, we could do art together. 🙂 Your posts always inspire me.
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Happy solstice and what a great poem to celebrate it!
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Thanks!! I’ve always liked the season transitions. 🙂
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Absolutely lovely post. I did one similar… I would have linked yours to mine if I had looked sooner. ❤
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Yours was lovely, too!
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💖 Thank you Brenda.
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My pleasure! 🙂
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Blessings of the solstice to you as well, Brenda. Mega-hugs!
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Thanks!! Cheers!
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Happy Solstice to you, too! Here’s to longer days. 🙂
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Woo-hoo, we’re that much closer to spring! 🙂
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Fascinating info. Thanks.
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Perfect from the first quote to the photo and your sweet farewell words, too. You make Solstice seem like a wonderful thing!
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Think how long we get to let our lights shine. Sunset is at 4 pm, and we can let those lights shine until 10 or after. That’s 6 hours of fun! In the summer, with sunset at 9 pm, kids would only get to look at the lights for half an hour before bed, if that long. 😀 It’s all how you look at it, I guess.
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Beautiful poem!
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Thanks!! 😀
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