The Equinox is here. Fleeting, precarious, balance. Can you feel it?

To acknowledge the Autumnal Equinox, a poem from Gwendolyn MacEwen, who is one of my favourite Canadian poets. Here is one of my favourite of her poems circa 1969. I think it captures our move from light into darkness perfectly. If you enjoy it, you should buy something she wrote.

The Shadow-maker

I have come to possess your darkness, only this.

My legs surround your black, wrestle it

As the flames of day wrestle night

And everywhere you paint the necessary shadows

On my flesh and darken the fibres of my nerve;

Without these shadows I would be

In air one wave of ruinous light

And night with many mouths would close

Around my infinite and sterile curve.

Shadow-maker create me everywhere

Dark spaces (your face is my chosen abyss),

For I said I have come to possess your darkness,

Only this.