The Scratching Log Presents:

A Solstice Salute.

(As it appeared on Twitter 12/22/2011, the Winter Solstice).

8:00AM Wake up, twittercats.  Something special is happening today!

8:30AM On this special day, follow the hashtag #Solstice for a #prose #poem about the year's turning point.

9:00AM Before the #Solstice:

9:30AM #Solstice Winter's black threatens to become un-ending midnight. Even the stars'sharp light cannot pierce it.

10:00AM #Solstice The sun's arcing path drifts down as if fatally weary, the sun itself pale against a bleak sky.

10:15AM #Solstice The nights, colder and longer, are enemies eating up the day until black rules all and hope dies in misery.

10:30AM #Solstice The endless final winter has finally come, the ice will trumph while creatures and spirits wither.

10:45AM #Solstice One can only crouch in a den, afraid and shivering.

11:00AM #Solstice Yet there is a slowing that could presage a pause in the deepening cold, the lengthening night, the sun's failing path.

11:30 AM #Solstice Before that pause, defiance.  In dead branches held by jaws, held by teeth, lit by coals carefully hoarded, light flickers.

11:40 AM #Solstice Lifted to the slowing sky, flame burns and then rages, re-kindling the will to survive. One torch raised, joined by others.

11:50AM #Solstice This gift, this creature, is all that stands between life and the deathly cold that freezes the heart; the heavy dark that blinds.

12:05 PM #Solstice Four-footed, cat-eyed; those who bear the flame and those guarded by it; they circle, waiting.

12:30PM #Solstice Ratha lifts her torch on the cover of the Imaginator Press edition of Ratha's Creature. http://ow.ly/87ojz

12:35PM #Solstice Sheila and I celebrate the victory of light over dark by offering this book at a deep discount.http://ow.ly/87ojz

3:00PM #Solstice Cat-minds sense the stillness of the pause, then afterward, the tinest movement, as if time has re-started.

4:00 #Solstice Night hesitates in its encroachment on day. Dark chokes, no longer able to swallow light.

4:45PM#Solstice Ice greedily sucks moisture into hoarfrost, trying to arm itself for what will come.

5:15 #Solstice The turning, the great reversal, the promise that the sun's path will again rise; day will strive against night; ice yield to water.

5:30PM #Solstice As the moment gathers speed, and the flames roar, the voices rise in hope and celebration

5:40PM #Solstice As the new light dawns, and the flames sing, the voices rise in joy and celebration.

5:50PM #Solstice The world is re-born and the dance toward spring and summer begins.

5:55PM #Solstice As it has before, as it always will, as long as this world and it's life exists.

6:00 Blessed Be. The Named and I wish you a glorious Winter #Solstice.  CB

6:30PM #Solstice Imaginator Press and I are deep discounting on a book that lifts its torch to drive away any darkness of the spirit.

6:35 #Solstice The one that started it all:  Ratha's Creature, First Book of the Named. http://ow.ly/87ojz

7:15PM I hope you have enjoyed this Named poetic experiment in time, space, emotion, and fiction..

7:20 The entire piece, including all the tweets, can be experienced again here:  http://rathascourage.com/Scratchlog_Solstice_2011