Within Time

How do I to appreciate the day

without also falling in love with the dark-

the amplified sounds and scents,

the hidden pitfalls we navigate, solely:

by touch, and trying, and instinct;

the numinous statement of desire?

 

A pure light has no shadow

of its own accord; it merely brings out

the shadows of everything else

its reach touches. Make the light stronger

and all particles reveal their true nature

and structures within time.

 

The night has embraced me wholly

in all the ways a lover never has-

its supportive hand, fingers

etched of truth, rests upon my waist

each sunset, twirling its prehensile tail

through my dreams, loosening my hair.

 

There is great power in liberating

something you want to make live;

hold it too tight, it cannot breathe.

If I release you to the whispers

of dark spaces, my hope is that you

return in an ecstasy of light.

 

It is where your shadow touches

the daylit face and form of you,

that I find your greatest strength,

measuring the sum of moments,

the truth of days, the failure of all

we never realized, within time.

Author's Note

This poem was inspired by the picture in the profile. It is something we almost never think about- a pure light does not throw its own shadow. It only illuminates other things and causes them to cast shadows. Such are the shadows of our personalities drawn out by love of others, and so our greatest people bring out thebest and worst of others.

Spanish translation here: http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/zorra_encantada/1799856/

Reviews

[emmajoy]

' There is great power in liberating -- -- something you want to make live; -- -- hold it too tight, it cannot breathe. .. '

Your writing has always surpassed common comment. .mine for sure. You lift one leaf and so many are then drawn upwards, needing you to test their worth. In this quite beautiful writing you've stripped light bare with gentle turns of phrase, and then, looked at the shadows of what might..will.could.. especially where love and passion might walk, wait.. half.hidden but ready..

Come back soon, please.. my mind needs to stir more often.. :)

[Ken Simm.]

I find I communicate more with myself during the night. In fact I find I say more to myself when I am lying outside on the mountain looking up at the milky way and listening to the world under my back.
Whether it is because you can say this in more than one language, (which is a skill I envy; I can speak other languages but find I can only create word art in one, or perhaps two). Or whether it is simply that you are the true poet who seeks her ultimate depths. Who creates out of such darkness a thing of light and honour and beauty; I do not profess to know. What I actually know beyond a shadow, is that you create multi layered art with passion and beauty. This one in particular sticks in my breast and makes another part of me whole.