Solstice is upon us and with it, I feel the calling of the muse to write my way into the light.

To stretch myself, to tease my poetic senses into verse, to give my mind an opportunity to lean into the unknown, beyond those spaces where my thinking has crystallized into certainty that I have it all figured out… I have begun a practice of reading a poem a morning – and then – letting whatever that poem inspires come into being through word and image.

This piece conspired itself into being after reading, WINTER APPLE From Pilgrim: Poems by David Whyte.

This is Day 2.

Some days I’ll share here. Some I won’t. We’ll see what the adventure brings!

There Is Nowhere Love Will Not Go
©2020 Louise Gallagher

Let this longest night
 fall
 effortlessly
 into dawn breaking open
 the sky
 bereft
 of winter’s days
 trapped
 inside
 with only the sheltering bones
 of this abode
 where you have held yourself
 sequestered
 to keep you safe.
 
Let this solitude
 play
 effortlessly
 the strings of your heart
 straining
 to not break
 under
 the weight
 of isolation 
 and worry
 that no matter the distance
 between two hearts
 love 
 will not be
 enough
 to keep you safe.

Let this Solstice
 awaken
 effortlessly
 your faith
 in Love’s authority
 to illuminate
 even the darkest night
 with its power
 to break open
 the dawn
 light returning
 to your heart
 on this darkest morning
 of the year.
 
And in that breaking open
 may you remember
 always
 there is nowhere
 Love will not go
 to keep you safe.