Sunlight and Shadows

Finding poetry in star dust, sunbeams, and passing clouds

Month: January 2026

  • Left Behind

    I see you walking off into the sunset

    And I’m standing here alone

    I see webs woven around you

    While I sit apart on a stone

    I see your ships all coming in

    But mine is lost at sea

    I see your doors open and close behind you

    While I can’t even find my key

    I know the facts are what is real

    And don’t always match how I feel

    I know how tempting things can look

    The flashy cover on a book

    I know that trust means stepping back

    And praying I’m on the right track

    I know there is a master plan

    And I just take each step I can

    ,

  • Antique Pottery

    Fine spider web cracks

    Bending without breaking

    Rough diamond chips

    Standing without shaking

    Fully broken pieces

    Glued to even stronger

    Worn and weathered edges

    Lasting even longer

    Healing and forgiveness

    Held between each line

    Promise, love, connection

    These imperfections fine

    ,

  • Words

    What do words mean? Tell me without words

    They’re mere vibrations lost in the air

    A finite selection of sounds and pauses

    Only make sense if a listener is there

    The speaker thinks this, says that, this way

    The hearer gets half and imagines more

    Memory selectively picks, stores, recalls

    Words lost or altered while feelings endure

    Words everywhere, all the time, drowning in words

    In one place harmless and another place betray

    Speak your own ruin before you can stop it

    Til you find yourself tied up with no words to say

    What enormous power in words can be had

    For they can work great good or unending bad

    ,

  • Refined

    A heart made of marble

    A heart made of fire

    Its very existence

    Must courage inspire

    For it held through life’s flames

    And found purpose higher

    ,

  • Memory River

    Dark river beds so far below

    Rushing with torrents full of rain

    So many muddy memories held

    Entangled joy, sadness, and pain

    They saturate the ground below

    And always upward ebb and flow

    To bring forgotten back to life

    What so long dormant there has lain

    Through crevices in life’s hard rock

    Waters of the past permeate

    Changing brick to quicksand mud

    Unstable, sudden falls create

    They turn the world upside down

    To wash away or even drown

    Before the present rights itself

    And thoughts and feelings can abate

    So much to lose – so much to gain

    From the past’s watermarked stain

    Though hard, it never is too late

    To learn from memories that await

    ,

  • Joy

    Joy makes people happy,

    Cheers up people too,

    It makes work go faster,

    And everything we do!

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