Cycle of the Seasons:
Turn of the Wheel
Turning I: It Begins...
Turning II: Fall
Turning III: Year's End
Turning IV: Celebrating Light
Turning V: Winter
Turning VI: Snowfall
Turning VII: Comes the Dawn
Turning VIII: Dawning Spring
Turning IX: Spring
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Turning I: It Begins... - December 16, 1997
Fall does not appear of a sudden,
Springing full-blown in radiant color.
The trees change slowly, leaf by leaf...
Subtle green into flaming glory
Slowly... quietly... like a bride knowing
This day is both beginning and ending.
So they change, until one morning...
End and beginning... it is here.
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Turning II: Fall - October 3, 1997
I stepped outside this morning
Into a different world...
Rain and breeze had done some magic.
I looked above to see of a sudden
More sky than tree... a new sky,
Washed clean, in pale blue glory
Shining through silvered branches.
Playfully the leaves blew 'round me
As Nature, clothed in her untidy best
And laughing merrily as a child,
Dropped her harvest on my head.
Yesterday's raindrops spangled my brow,
The sun was as cool as new spun gold,
And the air was tangy and sang of Fall.
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Turning III: Year's End - November 28, 1997
Autumn's leaves, dried corpses of bursting life
And fruitful, green abundance,
Blow around me in a mournful dance macabre,
Swirling on to final graves,
Traveling down long winter winds
Towards their rebirth...
Melding with the snows of death
Into the stuff of life...
Waiting for the warming sun
To spring forth Life in all its glory,
Green and warm and fruitful once more.
Moving in the great cycle
That holds us all as one Creation...
Death, Life and Rebirth... in a leaf.
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Turning IV: Celebrating Light - December 4, 1997
Sparkling lights 'gainst velvety night,
Shining stars come down to earth...
Child-bright colors and Earth-sweet scents,
Joyful and subtle to warm the cold winter...
Clear, silvery sounds of dancing bells
And needle sharp kisses of falling snow..
Sparkling laughter... warm, loving welcomes
From gate and hearth as trav'lers come home.
Presents and feasts and legends of awe,
Choirs of angels and rays of bright stars...
Donkeys and sheep, and the lowing of cattle...
And a child asleep in the soft, blessed night.
Time of the rebirth of sunlight and gladness...
Of the birth of our hope and the coming of joy.
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Turning V: Winter - December 9, 1997
Deep in the winter, the trees dream of Spring...
Within the deep winter one can see
The naked beauty of each branch,
The shapely sweep of trunk and bough
Missed in abundance and glory.
The new snow blankets them.
Purity runs along their limbs,
And jewels drip from their fingers
Fleeting as wealth and eternal as the gods.
The trees dream of Spring, and wrap themselves
In icy blankets as they feel the Sun
Growing to warmth and glory once more.
They dream of Spring down all the long nights,
Trembling in the cold death of Winter's sleep.
They dream of Spring... and of Rebirth.
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Turning VI: Snowfall - December 13, 1997
First you hear the silence......
Full of expectancy... almost-sound...
Sound waiting for birth (or rebirth).
Sound of the dreams of sleeping trees...
Of frozen waters waiting to run free...
The slow heartbeat of the great Mother
As She lies wrapped in sleep...
And your own heart and spirit slows
To the rhythm of Silence...
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Turning VII: Comes The Dawn... - January 27, 1998
Sudden light on a Winter morning,
Crystal cold clarity of Winter's sky...
After a time of long Winter greyness,
New sun dawns upon sleeping spirits
Like a sound of angels singing in visions.
Look to the dawn and greet the sun rising...
Nature draws breath in one long sweep of light....
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Turning VIII: Dawning Spring - March 9, 1999
Sing of the Spring...
The slow Spring, the cold Spring,
The Spring of awaiting.
Sing of a sunrise as cold in its colors
As any Winter's dawning,
An icy blue sky
Glazed in crystalline color
That melts into sun-gold.
Sing of the Spring...
The slow Spring, the sigh Spring,
The Spring of patience.
Sing of green shoots arrested in motion,
Stopped by a sudden snow
That covers their joyous growth
For a day... then is gone.
Sing of the Spring...
The slow Spring, the just-Spring,
The Spring of bare earth
And pregnant dreams.
Sing of the brown Earth
Laid open to new warmth,
And gardens growing within fertile minds,
Cloistered by chill winds.
Sing of the Spring...
The slow Spring, the dawn Spring,
The Spring of the last breath
Before the awakening.
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Turning IX: Comes the Spring... - March 19, 1999
Winter, with its chilling winds, cuts down
The green abundance of the Summer.
The bursting Life that fed our bodies
And nourished our Spirits,
Withers before that killing blast.
And so the year begins within
The chill death-sleep
Of Winter's dark, icy grip.
Yet as the lengthening shadows of the Fall
Turn 'round through shortened days...
And we light candles to hold back the Dark
That swallows their light
Just past our little habitations...
That sleep holds Life's promises and glory,
Never ending, never truly dying...
Ah... Where is Thy sting?!
For Spring comes round the year,
And sometimes even through the snow...
Last vain attempt to hold all Life in thrall...
Frail flowers push up and spring to Life,
Soon followed in glorious abandon
By all that burgeoning, vital host...
The Earth warms through lengthening days
And lusty Summer comes again.
O Human... Child of the Earth...
And of the Divine... why mourn?
Tho' Summer ends, gentles into Fall,
And slips 'neath the icy grip of Winter,
Does not the Spring return?
All death and loss are but
The Winter of the Soul...
They carry ever the seeds of Life.
And when the ending finally comes
Of any Summer's passage,
That Summer's end but clears the way,
In time, with faith and patience,
For all the virile, wild glory
Of a new abundance, of new Life,
For the bursting forth in glory
Of the newborn Spring.
This page updated January 27, 2000.
All poetry copyrighted by Barbara J. Mann. All rights reserved.
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