We’re deep in winter’s grip now… in so many ways…
I am trying to remain hopeful. For me, that means remaining grounded and present in my small corner of the world. But the large world insists on intruding.
I’m not sure that there is anything I can do except hold up my protest sign against the swirling chaos.
But I do have a larger platform than the courthouse lawn in central Vermont. So here is my sign:
We are watching! We stand with your victims! And we will take back our world!
These cold days will end. Winter never lasts forever. The ice will break against the spring…
All the sooner if we light the flames.
The Wednesday Word
for 21 January 2026
depth
What does depth mean to you? Think about it. If you’d like, send me a quick poem or story… or just a few thoughts. If you really have something to say, maybe enter my Wednesday Word contest on AllPoetry.
And now here are some hopeful thoughts that percolated up this week…
the deeps
and she drifted down
dancing slow mazurkas with darkness
wishing a merry new year
to passing fancies
beasts of scale and arms
and sharp teeth
not a few carrying luring light
cold pallid phosphorescence
bleak candles in wintry twilight
but all she has to welcome the morn
the enkindling in her heart
throbbing in time to starlight
far and away and above her world
awakens and unfolds
petals of warmth unfurling
this flame small and frail
yet fulsome against the howling night
beating against the towering blight
banishing shadows of doubt
and here in winter’s keep
she met the monsters in their strength
curtseyed with eyes full on their face
for what are they but delusion
quavering tongues of fear and un-light
and so she turned back to the sun
rose unwavering through the throng
saluted spring with surging song
and woke to gifts granted in the deep
©Elizabeth Anker 2026
By My Solitary Hearth 