Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education, Poetry, Art and Environment 

Ed Hessler

It is January 22, 2021. Welcome to the 22nd day of the year. By the end of the day 1,900,800 seconds will have passed. Sunrise is at 7:42 am and sunset at 5:05 pm. Last Saturday was the first day of the year when sunset was at 5:00 pm. Today it is at 5:07 pm as we gain light each day. Today's yield of sunlight is 9h 24m 53s of sunlight.

I've not paid any attention to sunrise. It too is changing, earlier every day. I chose last Saturday, January 17) to mark a sunset indicator of growing day length. On that day sunrise was at 7:45 am; today marked a 3 minute difference from that date--earlier. We will soon be able to talk about the return of light. Heat? Another story but in late February there will be days when it is noticeable.

Celebrate National Blonde Brownie Day (brown sugar substitutes for cocoa). Why not have both?!

Notable quotable. I miss those days so beautifully described in these words. Leaving any bookstore is hard . . . especially on a day in January, when the wind is blowing, the ice is treacherous, and the books inside seem to gather together in colorful warmth.―Jane Smiley

Today's poem is by Pablo Neruda. 

It includes a couple of bonuses, too. One is a discussion of Neruda's poem by Kristel Marie Pujanes who writes for The Quarter Life Experiment. She describes her first encounter  with this poem when she was a high school junior. In addition there is a short biography of poet Pablo Neruda. And in the event you would like a refresher, a sonnet is ""a little song," 14 lines in length. The Poetry Foundation's glossary on this form likely provide more than you want to know!