Happy winter solstice! Here is the last post of this decembrance series. I made sure to get outside before sunset to walk the dog and then light a small bonfire. The daily effort to photograph, write, and find a poem is never easy. But the poems freshen my eyes, renewing my local landscape, rejuvenating my language to express ideas that move beyond conventional beauty. I am looking forward to our lengthening days.

You told me you couldn’t see
a better day coming,
so I gave you my eyes.

—Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison, from Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry, Copper Canyon Press, 2003