Sunlight and Shadows

Finding poetry in star dust, sunbeams, and passing clouds

Category: Metaphor

  • Hope

    Hope cries like the bird at night

    Starting to sing before dawn

    Fighting the dark’s chains of doubt

    Finding a limb to cling upon

    Undoubting the fact of light

    Even when the last star is gone

    Hope fights like the ship at sea

    Rowing just as hard as they can

    Unwilling to admit defeat

    Despite the great dark ocean span

    Fixing on the beam of light

    That promises there is still land

    Hope stands like the flower strong

    Beaten down by the pouring rain

    Seeing through the endless storm’s

    Driving torrents and crushing pain

    Still holding its head up high

    With faith the sun will shine again

    ,

  • Sculpture

    This fragile sculpture made of glass

    Trying to hold in my hands

    Sometimes sharp though beautiful

    So close no one else understands

    Afraid to let the pieces drop

    Who knows what happens when it lands

    Turning it round and round to look

    It changes shape before my eyes

    The light comes in – so different now

    Intense emotions fall and rise

    I can’t tell when I’m touching real

    What is this object’s shape or size

    I’m told to shelter, watch it grow

    Just focus on what’s here today

    But it feels out of my control

    So hot it’s hard for me to stay

    That heat is molding, fusing bonds

    Look through the glass to see the way

    ,

  • The Race

    Four and twenty blackbirds

    Sitting in a tree

    Picked a peck of peppers

    And took them all for free

    You can talk to me til

    You are blue in the face

    But do not judge until you see

    The tortoise win the race

    The tortoise is the hero

    The hare is the fool

    In this tale but do not take

    This as all life’s rule

    The moral of the story

    If you really care

    Is do not judge another’s place

    Unless you have been there

    ,

  • Paths in the Sea

    When stormy waves wash high about my boat

    The breakers roar and peaceful channels flee

    When hope departs but for the lowest note

    He makes for me paths in the sea

    When storm clouds rise with darkness all around

    The sun is hid — the course I cannot see

    Though faintest rays of help cannot be found

    He make for me paths in the sea

    ,

  • 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

    ,

  • 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

    ,