Solstice Candlelight Poetry Celebration

The annual Winter Solstice Candlelight Poetry Celebration is Monday December 21, 7pm, at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church in Placitas, NM.   The theme for the night is “Winter and the Mountain” with 12 poets reading their work by the light of one candle, symbolizing the transition of the season from darkening, shorter days to a gradual lengthening.   “Winter settles on the Sandia and the cold moves downwards. The north facing slopes hold the snow now. The Elders huddle at the crest and pull their green and white blankets snug. The longest night is coming. Solstice. Celebrate this passage and welcome back the slowly stretching days at the Winter Solstice Candlelight Poetry Reading —a tradition now for twelve years. Twelve poets from the Southwest and beyond each read a poem to the light of a single burning candle. Between readings, a short interlude of silence provides a moment of contemplation at the close of another year. Afterwards meet and chat with this year’s readers over refreshments in the church’s fellowship hall.”   Jim Fish, Tani Arness, Dale Harris, Ben Brishcar, Renny Golden, Jim Burbank, Larry Goodell, Elizabeth Galligan, Kat Heatherington, Gary Brower, Kimberly Summers and Norman Schaefer are the poets who will be reading. The event is organized by John Orne Green and sponsored by the Earth Care Fellowship at LPPC and The Partnership for Earth, as part of the Earth Vespers series.   A poetry chapbook and recordings will be available.