🌹🎶 Winter's Invitation II

Celebrating my first Substack Birthday!

🌹🎶 Happy 1st Substack Birthday

Thank you so much for rambling along with me…

On 31st December 2023, inspired by

Beth Kempton

’s Winter Writing Sanctuary, I started this Substack with a poem called Winter’s Invitation

Since then we’ve flown with Peace Doves in St Albans Abbey, followed the trail of Berlin’s formative females, rambled over the white cliffs of Dover and the poppy fields of Deal and tracked the sparkly pathway of stars through midwinter. It’s been such a wonderful adventure to word-wander freely through life’s wonders together.
Thank you for reading and listening - it means the world to me.

In celebration, I’m sharing Winter’s Invitation II, written during this years Winter Writing Sanctuary, with thanks to Beth for weaving such potent word magic in her books, courses and Substack Soul Circle

Wishing you wonderful wanderings in 2025 - looking forward to rambling with you!

Katie xx

Photo: Brockwell Park, London

Winter’s Invitation II

Winter: Season of sharp, dual-edged contrasts,
Of icicle daggers dangling from urban edges,
Whilst flickering fires dance in hearts and hearths.
This season of hibernation and festivity provokes
Intense yearnings to retreat into blankets and soup
And expand like a shooting star in communal celebrations
Where sparkling lights sit alongside heart-piercing grief.
Both dreaded spectre and bountiful partygoer,
Winter brings bittersweet lessons gleaned from
Tenacious trudging through endless greyscapes
And joyful sledging through cut crystal snowshine.

Winter’s deities rule the shifting tides of duality:
Holly King reaches his prickly zenith at Winter Solstice,
Knowing he must give way to the Oak King as light returns.
Presiding over the Gregorian New Year gateway,
Two-headed Janus forges resolutions from past and future,
Whilst a flaming firebird rises in the fresh lunar light,
Sweeping away the old year’s ashes and igniting renewal
With a swish of its crackling firework studded tail.
As in Saturnalian revels, slaves become masters for a day,
Winter’s rituals evolve through dualistic reversals -
A child born in a manger brings a message of radical love
To unseat the rich and elevate whores and lepers.
Menorot flicker in remembrance of a courageous few
Overcoming the might of the oppressive many.

Perhaps, then Winter’s greatest invitation
Is to find equilibrium within this epic see-sawing:
- To walk the icy tightrope with eyes and arms wide open,
Finding the startling still point between the ups and downs,
- To dance passionately and precariously beyond polarity,
Embracing intensity with a dry, wry, salt-sprinkled smile.

Katie Rose 28.12.24

Inspired by Beth’s Kempton’s Winter Writing Sanctuary

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