The Seven Days of Christmas: Poetry Tuesday: "Land of Long Shadows" by Ruth Hill

For those of you who are tired of hearing traditional Christmas poetry, here is a lovely winter poem that makes me homesick for my native Alaska.


"Land of Long Shadows"

Lingering, lengthening, lavender shadows
softly sadden the snow.
Rowdy clouds and swirling flurries:
shadows slide ’cross slithering drifts.
The sun crawls around the low horizon,
drip-torching flames.
Inuit stalk Inukshuk statues,
their black and white parkas
eclipsing the horizon flares.
A tiny silhouetted sapling,
whipping in the winter wind,
makes a mile-long shadow,
across the creek, over the clearing,
and far into the woods.
In the shadow of faraway mountains,
slate blue flares pink, then fades.
Deep trails flood and fill
with violet blue.
Sunny valley bottoms
are squeezed up into the starry sky,
until all the shadows touch,
and the world is still.

by Ruth Hill


Ciao!

The Lonely Alchemist