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We Gather Now for Bells
Katharyn Howd Machan

Dark days, long nights: yet light
happens among us with red candles
and music rising from pull and pause
to praise the pulse we carry within
as we brave season’s weight. Solstice!
Let us embrace the peaceful place
of roots at rest, of seeds asleep,
of ice a sure and steady promise
as we wait for new birth. Dance
I offer and urge to all
who fear that winter kills and stills:
find full rhythm in body’s joy
to be alive as clappers clang,
brass and bronze and copper, silver
sending the boldest, brightest song
to call our hands and hips to move
in celebration of our thanks
for sloping valleys, snow-deep hills.

—
Katharyn Howd Machan writes poetry and memoir on her Dragon Patio when weather allows and elsewhere when it doesn’t. As a professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College, she mentors students in fairy-tale-based creative writing courses. Her most recent publications are A Slow Bottle of Wine (The Comstock Writers, Inc., 2020) and Dark Side of the Spoon (The Moonstone Press, 2022). For spirit and body, she belly dances.

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Wedding Photo by Warren Woessner

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