As we look ahead to bidding 2023 a fond farewell, I want to thank this community for how we have grown, shared, and cared for one another through this first half of the school year. This poem, written by Sudeep Sen and read this morning at our Winter Concert, captures for me the essence of the season and, just as meaningfully, the moment our students find themselves experiencing: in the middle of things, calibrating time and language, clearing unresolved fog, waiting for the new heat that the new year will bring.
Until then, from all of us at Belmont Day, we wish you a joyful and restful Winter Break and look forward to your return in 2024.
Winter
by Sudeep Sen
Couched on crimson cushions,
pink bleeds gold
and red spills into one’s heart.
Broad leather keeps time,
calibrating different hours
in different zones
unaware of the grammar
that makes sense.
Only random woofs and snores
of two distant dogs
on a very cold night
clears fog that is unresolved.
New plants wait for new heat —
to grow, to mature.
An old cane recliner contains
poetry for peace — woven
text keeping comfort in place.
But it is the impatience of want
that keeps equations unsolved.
Heavy, translucent, vaporous,
split red by mother tongues —
winter’s breath is pink.
