In 2017, the Winter Solstice in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory was on Wednesday 21 June at 2:24 pm AEST. I wrote this piece on 21 June 2008.
on the shortest day i lie in the sun
but feel the shade sweep over me
hoping the dark will turn to light
and that chance might four-leaf-clover me
this sun through glass has kept me here
and belief in tasks worth doing
but suppose that jobs are over now
the agendas changed or going
suppose a canker is really inside
not cured by sunshine at all
where will we be – my friends and i
when the long summer evenings call
it’s not in a bottle, not in a pill
and not in these fears of mine:
it’s on the breath and in the soul
where even the sun can’t shine
if contentment comes but once a year
when the shortest day is now over
it might after all be just enough
– and time will grow the clover
