Summer Soldiers

Yankee Winter Blues

The solstice isn’t all
about the winter. Cold
and wind-blown snow aside,
in days when earth was mother
to the Celtics, triumph
of light was celebrated,
waiting for the Oak King
to return, day increase,
the seeds awake from
hibernation, exploding

in one and big green bang.
Today it’s only dollars
praised, economies
of here and now that matter:
all the world should suffer
for our sport of summer.
Johnny Damon, though,
is not the sacred Sun King;
Fenway Park will blossom
once again come spring.

~Son Rivers 2005

Today’s Bunch of Footnotes

light; The Celtic Connection: Yule; “Yule, (pronounced EWE-elle) is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb.”

suffer; The New York Times: The Price of Oil; “If the protection of our environment comes at the expense of others, might it be an expression of selfishness rather than virtue? The more we focus on defending our environment, the less we may focus on environments outside our borders; activism can become anesthesia. Domestic restrictions on drilling have had the unintended effect of insulating our tender consciences from the worst impacts of oil extraction. Out of sight, out of mind.” (link via Gristmill)

Damon; The Joy of Sox: Go Ahead, Bite The Big Apple; “New York is paying for what Damon was, not what he will be. There can be no doubt that his four years in Boston will turn out to be far more productive than his four in the Bronx.”