The Brightest Light – A Poem

I am walking in the dark.

The air is so crisp that

my breath forms clouds in the sky.

They float away from my lips,

word shaped and almost translucent.

Watching them fly above me,

I watch as light from the stars

shine within them. Words like

joy, hope, celebration. Words like

togetherness, family, kindness and cheer.

I watch as the words disappear

into the velvety darkness of the sky

which is broken only

by the smallest pinpricks of light.

As I make my way over the ground,

everything sounds like music:

the crunch of my feet on the snow,

the soft sound of the wind swirling

around my face, the soft tinkling of

icicles dancing in the cold Winter wind.

It is as if the world itself is an orchestra,

and I am its audience. As I walk on,

I begin to notice a light bright enough

almost pulsing along the snow.

It creates shadows that move and shift

almost as if the light is trying

to chase the shadows away.

I follow the shadows to the source

of the light and watch as a brilliant star

shines in the sky. I feel a lessening

of the darkness in the world around me

as the daylight returns, oh so slowly.

I look deeper into the star above me

and within it, I see a wheel turning

at its centre. The wheel turns slowly

and I realize that the pulse of the star

and the shadows that move

across the snow follow that pulse,

that movement. It is as if the star

is the sun and the moon combined,

and the veil between the night and the day

are growing thinner and the darkness

is letting light through. I stand there

beneath the star that is also

the sun and the moon at once and

I feel its light move over me,

filling me with warmth and joy.

I am filled with hope for the light

is beginning to return. The wheel

of the year is about to take

its last rotation. There is a hum in the air

that joins the natural orchestra

that plays around me. The light begins

to grow even brighter, even more

beautiful than it was before,

shedding light in all of the shadows

around me so that all I can see is light.

Above me, the wheel that contains

the stars, the sun and the moon

shines down upon me. A small piece

detaches itself from the wheel

and falls down toward me.

I hold out my hand and the star

rests in my palm, warm to the touch

and shining with the brightest light.

Another year is at its close

and within my hand,

I hold a beginning.