Haiku 2023–355

first day of winter

sunrise behind the city

a modern Stonehenge

— —

I’ve written before in this space before about my office that has a commanding view of the city I work in. Provided we have little to no cloud cover, the view will be no more spectacular than at sunrise this morning. For six months, the sun has been rising just a little later and a little further south each morning. Before it starts its journey back north, the sun will rise up immediately behind the skyscrapers downtown as viewed from my desk. The dark silhouette of the buildings and the surrounding hills will stand in stark contrast to a sky that will start at deep red, then transition its way through every imaginable orange before fading into light blue.

I first noticed this phenomenon five Decembers ago when I had a different, windowless office near my current one. The sun would shine directly into my office only one week a year right around the winter solstice. That’s when I first noticed the relationship between downtown and the building I work in. It’s now almost every bit as important reminder of the season as Christmas trees and manger scenes. Today’s haiku is an attempt to share that sentiment with you.