Winter | Updates

Poetry Tea

Winter — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This March 21 at 3 pm, join W.E. Isaacson for a cozy Poetry Tea at Afterthoughts Gournet Dessert Restaurant in Abbotsford BC. Over tea and spring light, Emily both listens to your poems and questions about her work, and shares a few poems shaped by attentiveness, place, and the contemplative legacy of the Wild Lily Institute. Friends, invited guests, and readers are warmly welcomed for an unhurried afternoon of listening and conversation.

]]>

Little Leather-bound Elegies

Winter — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:57:46 -0500

Little Leather-Bound Elegies is a quiet, year-long gathering of poems that move with the seasons—elegies written for what is hidden, waiting, and becoming. Returning again and again to winter fields, thawing ground, seeds in dark soil, and hands passing warmth across generations, the work dwells where grief and renewal meet as daily reality rather than spectacle. Each poem is accompanied by reflections, summaries, and lexicons that trace its symbolic and theological threads, inviting readers to linger and read attentively. Written slowly, with devotion to craft and faith, this blog unfolds as an ongoing offering—one that understands sorrow not as something erased by time, but as something carried, tended, and, at times, quietly transfigured across the year.

]]>

Ballad of the Winter Sea

Winter — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 20:45:32 -0500

Ballad of the Winter Sea is a lyrical meditation on longing, loss, and the sacred meeting place between the natural and spiritual worlds. Set to the solemn movements of Mozart’s Requiem, the poem unfolds in a mythic coastal landscape where the sea becomes a living threshold between life and eternity. From Old Brittany onward, the poem evokes a timeless maritime world shaped by memory, storm, and haunting beauty. At its centre stands Sophia, the sea personified—a figure of grief, mystery, and resurrection. Rising “like a woman from her grave,” she blends ancient sea-goddess imagery with Christian symbolism, mourning her lost beloved, whose ship perished on All Hallows’ Eve. Rufus, though separated by oceans, hears her voice carried across fog and foreign ports, guiding him slowly home. Drawing on maritime lore, sacred music, and subtle Christmas symbolism, the poem weaves sound, memory, and longing into a story of separation and return. Its cinematic imagery—stormy seas, lantern-lit cottages, and travellers following the first star—culminates in a vision of homecoming. Ultimately, Ballad of the Winter Sea reflects the human desire to move from darkness into light and to be called safely home. It is the Christmas poem by Emily Isaacson for 2025.

]]>

Cornwall Morning

Winter — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:24:29 -0500

Cornwall Morning is a poetic sanctuary where the misty romance of Cornwall’s windswept coast meets a writer’s dawn reflections. Drawing inspiration from the rich history and folklore of Cornwall — a land shaped by ancient Celtic roots, megalithic stones, storm-lashed cliffs, and a long tradition of literary devotion — this blog showcases poems from the Cornwall Morning section of Emily Isaacson’s latest book Storm Watcher. Each verse reads like a cottagecore reverie: quiet mornings in an old signal house, gull cries over the Atlantic, and the sea’s ever-changing light. Complemented by Emily’s original AI-generated art, Cornwall Morning invites readers into a world where history and imagination intertwine, and where every post feels like watching a dawn unfurl with ink and colour.

]]>

Welcome to my scattered anthem

Winter — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

"Welcome to my scattered anthem. My name is Emily Isaacson, and I am a poet who lives by candlelight—both literally and inwardly. I write from a life shaped by devotion rather than spectacle, by attention rather than noise. My work grows slowly, like prayer, and often in quiet places: near forests, near convents, near the steady rhythms of contemplation. Poetry, for me, is not performance. It is a form of listening, a way of keeping watch, a way of tending what is sacred when the world moves too quickly to notice. . ."

Begins my recent intro added to my Wildlily website Read more

]]>

Storm Watcher Reviews Are In

Winter — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“There’s a constant motion between the personal and the mythical. Her words rise like tides, returning again and again to resilience, devotion, and the endurance of beauty in chaos.”

—Shey Saints, reviewer

"It’s an ambitious work that bridges tradition and modern sensibility."

—Jiminie Mochi, reviewer

I hosted a Winteriade

Winter — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A few nights ago, within the intimate, candle-lit living room of my brother’s family home, I hosted a Winteriade to mark both my fiftieth birthday and the launch of four new books. Outside, winter held the world in stillness; inside, we gathered as one might for a vigil—quietly, deliberately, with warmth drawn close. What began as a celebration unfolded as something older and more ceremonial: a keeping of winter together. . .

]]>