Winter Solstice at Newgrange Poem

At Newgrange in the Boyne Valley, a beam of sunrise enters through the roof-box on mornings around the Winter Solstice, travels the 19-metre passage, and illuminates the inner chamber. Mary Mills wrote the poem below after studying the solstice alignment in an online creative writing class.

Winter Solstice at Newgrange

Dark retreats before
the calculated caress
of sun's brightness.

Winter's hand pulls back
from a small ancient chamber;
light intensifies.

For a few minutes,
brilliance scatters kisses
before light recedes.

The night must return,
and we can draw light into
dark times if we try.

Poem by Mary Mills.

Written in Dr. Sylvia Baer's online Creative Writing:
Poetry class Gloucester County College, New Jersey.

Admission to the chamber of Newgrange for the Winter Solstice sunrise is by lottery. There is no on-line application system; however the obliging Staff at the Visitor Centre will fill out a form on your behalf. All are welcome to gather outside the entrance to the Newgrange mound on each of the mornings from December 18th to December 23rd inclusive. Sunrise is at 8.58am.