Circling

Cherry
Poem of the week

By Rhiannonw

Fri, 26 Dec 2025
  • 602 reads
18 comments
 

The sun rose later each day
as the year got daily older;
the sun set earlier each day,
the weather gradually colder.
Day by day more brief the daylight –
whether dull, beclouded
or bright sunlight
until
the shortest day
arrived and
gave way
to daily sunrise sooner, sunset later*
steadily the year will be moving forrader
the temperature rise, seedlings sprout,
the days get longer, blossom open out,
and when the longest day is past
fruit will set, vegetables grow,
provisions to last
for the season approaching as the nights draw in
with dwindling daylight, bare winter begin
the temperature drop,
and growing stop …
until …

[IP:the shortest day]

* I gather that there is a bit of delay in correleation between the sunset getting later, and the sunrise eariler over a day or two, but I hope I'm OK to take the general trend especially with poetic licence.

Certificate U
Poem
Nature
Nature
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

This is wonderful Rhiannon, also is that your photo? It's stunning!

I can already notice a difference in the mornings - can you?

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you. Yes, it is a photo of mine on the Pembrokeshire coast. Aren't sunsets beautiful, especially over the sea, like that!

It's nice you have noticed the mornings litghter, my husband has, and it helps when the sky is clear, like today!

Thank you for the cherries.

Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

another geography lesson!

Good work Rhiannon, and another geography lesson! Perhaps you could explain why we here had the "shortest night"? As far as dawn goes "He is coming with the glory of the morning on the wave! I love sunrise over the sea!

But the sunset on your photo - magnificent.

Spring to be looked forward to yes! But * sounds Ok no need for overkill!

All the best! Tom

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

So, for you, it has just passed the 'shortest night' and the longst day, so you start my poem in the middle, and gradually move into autumn and winter arriving at the shortest day in the middle of our summer when we have the longest day and shortest night! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

Yes, but why? I think you can explain it like you explain the Seasons in the first place, with simple geometry. Considering the circular orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and the rotation of the Earth around its own (tilted) axis. With this model you will get that summer/winter // day/night symmetry.

Tom

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

yes. I had thought your question was simply about the diference to you in the southern hemisphere to us in the northern hemisphere. Thank you. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I love the rhythm at the start, as if like the Earth contained by cold the only changes are length of light. And then as the days grow longer, the order of bare soil is broken, Life and all its green wildness bursts out, and then at the end the rhythm reappears

Gorgeous photo, too. It is interesting how the colour of light changes, from West to East, South to North, isn't it? Can really notice in seaside photos

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Di. Not sure what you mean by the colour changes mentioned in the last paragraph. I'm going to enquire of my husband! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

It's that, here, the light seems to me to be gentle purple? But when I go down South East it is more orange? On the East coast in Scotland have read people call it pink.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Oh, I must think about that. Time of day has such an effect. He was thinking you  meant different directions in the sky in one place! Light in sky is fascinating. Evening light on fine days is so beautiful and many flowers colours seem to glow in it! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

yes, can seem like everything is rimmed in light, just for a few minutes

 

Submitted by GlosKat on

Made me think of the Newlyn School of Art down in Corwall, where so many famous artists moved in the late 19th/early 20th century because of the quality of the light down there.

I'm not the least bit artistic, but when I drive to see my friend in Cambridge I know when I'm in East Anglia because the light seems to be a steely grey.

 

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Oh, thank you. I'm glad it worked in the end, and hope others enjoy it! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I like how you write the changing of daylight hours and the photo's gorgeous too Rhiannon.

Jenny.

 

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Jenny. Glad you enjoyed both! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by jennifer on

Granted. We are artists, not scientists (though the two are not always mutually exclusive).

I learnt a new word. 

Forrader.

Beautiful.

J x

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed.

I think I used the word 'forrader' slightly humorously, and dialectally, but it seemed to fit and lgihten the verse! Rhiannon