Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.

I'm Sean Johnson, and today is December 13th for St. Lucy's Day,

a commemoration originally celebrated on the winter solstice

and still associated with that turning point of the year

where the days are short and the nights are long,

but also when we begin to look forward to the increase where the days are short and the nights are long, but also when we begin to look forward

to the increase and return of the light. Today's poem is by Malcolm Geite, and it's called

Laund Abbey on St. Lucy's Day. It comes from his wonderful book of liturgical sonnets waiting on the word, which also includes some really fantastic illustrations to accompany each poem along with a short reflective or interpretive essay.

If you're hearing the poem for the first time and you enjoy it, you should go directly to Malcolm Gide's own website,

where you can find a vastly superior reading of the poem in the poet's own voice.

A guide here capitalizes on the themes of light and darkness.

Lucy's own name means light.

It comes from the Latin, Luke's Lucas. and as he says in a comment on this poem, that is most fitting as she found her life transformed by the sun that does not set.

Here is Laund Abbey on St. Lucy's Day.

St. Lucy's Day is brief and bright with frost.

In round-cupped dew-ponds, shallow waters freeze.

Delicate fronds and rushes are held fast.

The low sun brings a contrast to the trees whose naked branches dark against the skies

and fringed with glory by the light behind, in patterns too severe for tired eyes.

Burn their bright beauty on the weary mind.

St. Lucy's son still bathes these abbey walls, and in her garden rose stalks stark and bear shine in a frosty light that yet recalls the glory of the summer roses there.

Though winter night will soon surround us here, another advent comes. Dayspring is near.

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