December descends upon us with cold finality. The year is nearly over. The nights are the longest they will ever be. Outside, away from the comfort and joy of festive merriment, it is a contemplative time, a time of letting go. And - because life is a paradox - it is a singularly poignant time for holding on, as well.

Remembering Elaine

By Elizabeth Lund

One great blue heron

punctuates the shore,

huddling in first snow.

What keeps this steel-eyed

juvenile here, weeks after

the others have flown?

Gray on gray she stands

like a wrought-iron

question mark.

What does she read

in the tinfoil sky,

its indecipherable script?

Does she stand, like me,

awaiting a sign, has she

hunkered too far down?

How do winged creatures

lose their lift, their bold

exclamation point?

One could say the sky

turns a deaf ear, that some

stories are meant to trail off.

She stands ramrod straight,

like a stubborn suicide

or a righteous sacrifice.

But I’m not ready to let

her go, as the season’s

first storm spits and swirls.

Elizabeth Lund is the award-winning host of Poetic Lines at NewTV. The show features in-depth interviews with emerging and established poets about their work and creative process. She also interviews poets and reviews major collections of poetry for The Christian Science Monitor, where she served as poetry editor for 10 years. From 2015 to 2020, Elizabeth wrote a monthly column about poetry for The Washington Post. Her own poems have appeared in various publications including The Dalhousie Review, Connecticut Review, The Christian Century, and the Paterson Literary Review. Un-Silenced is her debut collection.