Yalda marks the celebration of the winter solstice in Iran, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, among others. On the longest night of the year, we stay up late with loved ones, eat red foods like watermelon and pomegranate, and tell stories and read poetry. Using a collection of Hafez poems as a divinatory tool, we ask a question and receive the answer by opening to a random page. The color red is significant to Yalda, as it symbolizes the red glow of dawn, and the end of the eternal night.  

Prompt:
In the spirit of Bernadette Mayer’s Midwinter Day, for Yalda, write a 24-line poem throughout the day on December 21. Write one line every hour of the day and night. Set a timer each hour. Stay up as late as you can. Then write scraps of your dreams as you drift in and out of sleep. You may pose a series of questions to a book of poems (can be from Hafez or whatever book connects you to the day) and use these questions and answers as material for your poem. Additionally, photograph or document instances in your day where you see the color red. This can be in found objects in or outside of the home. If you don’t come across red things, you can create them.