O, new Dawn, Shining with enduring Light, Sun of Equilibrium: Come and brighten Us who wait in Darkness, In the Shadow of Mortality. “O” Antiphon for Winter Solstice

When earth is newly clad in snow And wonder’s dusted off the mantel of the commonplace And left it round and soft, When earth and sky both share a glow When all is light aloft, alow, My heart just wants to romp and laugh When all the worlds become one path. No need to probe with crook or staff

If we are to live in the present, being truly alive, then everything recedes except these simple things that we observe, these particular movements that we make: the color of a leaf, the walk in the garden. R. J. Orwell, O.S.B. EPHEMERIS

  Foliage fallen, Just one robin is enough: Self-sufficiency. Bill Felker

Counting absences Days without red-winged blackbirds Autumn samadhi Bill Felker

The morning breeze sent a wave of yellow twinkles against the dappled sun-barred east. Almost constantly leaves were falling. They were tears, I doubt not, as they fell heavily straight downward. Ground underneath yellow-speckled. Leaf-dotted ground. Leaf-starred lawns.

Every year, accompanied by a change in the weather, The ginkgo reverses its magnetic field And drops a sheet of gold at its feet Like a metronome shedding time, Like a skeleton shedding cellular richness To stand like a lightning rod for the sun. Robert Paschell EPHEMERIS