Hiraeth

A Winter Sonnet

Photo by Charles Jackson on Unsplash

Hiraeth
Welsh, n: deep longing for something, especially one's home.

The sun sinks low, by western ridge concealed,
and leaves behind the twilight’s purple glow. 
Geese gather by the thousands in the field,
legs tucked beneath them in a bed of snow. 
I’m frozen on my porch to hear their calls,
the winter stillness pierced by trumpet cries;
a deeper shade of darkness gently falls,
and all at once the multitude—they rise…

What dreams of light and heat compel them forth
to fly afar where lands are ever green?
A sunward longing calls them toward the warmth,
to reach a far-off home they’ve never seen.

A piercing, joy-filled longing thrills my soul—-
O draw me ever toward my Sunlit home.