Ash Wednesday

This Lent will be odd. I am giving up the previous format of following the Daily Office Lectionary.
I'm hoping my practice of intentional silence will allow things to swim up from the depths, and fly in from the far-away horizons, in some form that will allow me to enact them in the written word.

I'm going to start with an old poem about Lent that I wrote years ago, upon finding out that the word "Lent" is actually "Lengthen." It's a contraction along the same lines as "Bedlam" for "Bethlehem."
It refers to the lengthening days as the earth rolls along toward Spring.

Lent

Cold the earth turns

From the old dark.

Longer the sun burns;

Higher the day’s mark.

Over the world edge

Wider the light leans.

Over the gray hedge

Softer the wind keens.