Winter Notes and a Sneak Preview

It’s November, which means puffer coats are out and thermostats are up. We’ve turned back our clocks and are ready to tackle whatever winter throws our way. Porch cushions are put away, and winter boots, gloves, hats, and coats have reemerged. The plunging temperatures draw us indoors, and we turn our attention to family, the holidays, and a good read.

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At The Dolomite Review, we have mounds of good reads. Contributors have showered us with gifts of fiction, poetry, and personal essays—each one a small revelation. We open them with the delight of children at Christmas. One such contributor, Susan Haifleigh, has given us permission to share a poem early—an offering both subtle and profound.

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I have known Susan for more than twenty years, since our children were in kindergarten together. I first knew her as a designer, but over time discovered our shared love of poetry. Her poem, “Stone to Earth,” drew me in immediately with its quiet weaving of the tactile outer world and the meditative inner world. It reads like a prayer to oneself and, though brief, invites reflection:

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Who is the speaker addressing? What does it mean to rest like a stone—bound to the earth yet at peace within it—and what makes silence so precious?

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In reading it, we are reminded to pause, to notice, and to sink into our own stillness.

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Susan lives in Northville, Michigan. On writing Stone to Earth, Susan says she was inspired by "a contemplation about everything having consciousness and our relationship to nature as an access to our inner wisdom.

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