#SOL22: Darkness

“Hello, Darkness, my old friend

I’ve come to talk with you again

Because a vision softly creeping

Left its seeds while I was sleeping . . .”

https://youtu.be/0jqn9SKYAgY

Darkness?

A state of mind? A time of day?

A feeling?

The darkness that I’m already tired of is the darkness that happens with sunset before 8 pm.

Really?

As the days shorten, the night lengthens and the early start to night is so fruWhstrating.m.

It will be April before the sunsets after 8 pm again.

Lonely months from August to April.

Eight lonely months before the sunset occurs after 8 pm.

Darkness . . .

Pitch black?

A smidgeon of light?

Welcome? Unwelcome?

What song do you hear? What connections do you make between the song and life?

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6 responses

  1. I felt this, Fran!
    My heart sunk when I realized sunset happened before 8 pm this past Saturday night. It feels like we have much less free time when the world darkens before we are ready to retreat for the night.

    1. Stacey, There’s such an “ebb and flow” to daylight in my life. Daytime seems to be productive work time. “Dark” does seem to be “retreat for the night” or at least “rest up”!

  2. I love how you started with the words of a song. I read and immediately could hear Simon and Garfunkel. I ended your slice reminding myself to use MORE song lyrics in my teaching. As I read yur reflection to the increased darkness in the evenings, I had a different connection. Each morning as I arise at 5:30am, it is darker. It is unwelcome….but I do love the 4 seasons and know that without the cooler, shorter days, I won’t get to see Fall leaves and build a snowman. Your post is a reminder to have a balance of my mindset. I’m bookmarking this so I can deplicate a discussion with my students. Thanks. BTW – I also end your slices each week and see your OLW “Be patient” and I think how that is informing you well this week. Be patient…the sunset will return one day after 8pm!

    1. Balance. I don’t travel as early in the day so I’m not YET missing morning light. My early reading and writing daily routines seem to be on “lit” devices. Patience seems harder as the days whiz by so the visual reminder on my blog is definitely for my benefit! (And of course we need winter as I’m already plus 4 in the homemade Christmas gifts!)

  3. I’m with Sally on both enjoying your song lyric start and on missing the light at the beginning of the day. Over the years I have come to appreciate darkness as a time to regroup, refresh. There’s a wonderful book called Wintering by Katherine May that talks about the importance of such dark times, literal and metaphorical. In Maine sunset will come before 4 pm in mid-December! It’s twilight when we walk the kids out to the bus! Eek!

  4. Those shorter days seem to creep up on us. Sunrise at 5:30 with sunset at 6:30 morphs into sunrise at 6:25 and sunset at 5:45. Yet, even though I am not a big fan of early sunsets I do find the longer evenings to be quieter and more peaceful. I don’t get as much done, but I do get more reading time.

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