Poems for the Winter Solstice

Poetry
Environmental and Science Education
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

It is the Winter Solstice, one of the ways humans have marked time (think Neolithic) and have noted this occasion as the world turns around the sun. The arrival of winter according to the sky above—way above... deep above.

© Copyright Sian Lindsey.

What a pairing. Shortest of days. Longest of nights.

Well, not quite!

There is an interesting twist, a result which follows from geometry. It is the shortest day.  First, the year's earliest sunset is NOT on the Winter Solstice. It occurs a few days before. Second, the year's latest sunrise is NOT on the Winter Solstice. It occurs a few days after. It is because our orbit around the sun is not a circle but an ellipse.

Paul Huttner provides an explanation from timeanddate.com (link to site above) on the Updraft Blog.

Three wintry poems here, here and here.

Ah, why not a fourth?!