Solstice Blessing
we bless your fires
Upon cold white dark bonfires burn.
Dancers weave shadow shapes
against bright leaping flames,
blackly dance forward, backward,
generations beyond generations.
Nights black casket swallows smoke
that never touches stars,
distant beyond touching,
numerous beyond knowing,
ancient in their youth.
Always the fires burn,
warm the living,
recall the dead,
release the incense,
light our ways through
words and forests.
So has it been
in hearths and fields,
oak groves and churches,
in men and women.
So has it been
and will it be.
We bless your fire
and ask your blessing,
this year and all years,
this life and all lives.
Like stars and bonfires
we share our wonders,
to then welcome the sun.
~ Wry Welwood
late twentieth century,
revised 20th of December 2022.