Sunlight and Shadows

Finding poetry in star dust, sunbeams, and passing clouds

Category: Time

  • Shoreline

    Cobwebs and petals suspended in time

    Caught in the rocks where the water can’t reach

    Waiting for something – someone to pass by

    New footprints in old, once more on the beach

    Footsteps of people traversing through time

    Following memories out on the pier

    A past child wading to sail wooden boats

    Feel that child’s hopefulness, helplessness, fear

    The past’s chilling winds blow strong off the bay

    Hold on, let it pass, do not be knocked down

    The clouds blow away, the sunshine breaks through

    Face toward the warmth and let healing be found

    The lighthouse stands strong, so timeless and sure

    Changeless no matter the darkness or rain

    Guiding the travelers to present from past

    Look up now to find the direction again

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  • Waiting

    Waiting for a bus or train

    Waiting for the light to change

    Waiting for the rain to stop

    Waiting for the shoe to drop

    Waiting for a grade or raise

    Waiting on roadwork delays

    Waiting for another clue

    Waiting just to hear from you

    Waiting for the day to end

    Waiting to see round the bend

    Waiting for the phone to ring

    Waiting through the cold for spring

    Waiting for important news

    Waiting to see who will lose

    Waiting to prove if it’s true

    Waiting just to hear from you

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  • Memories

    Such fickle things are memories

    So fragile, tenuous, but strong

    Some fade before the ink has dried

    While some will last in stone life-long

    And others flit like butterflies

    Appearing where they least belong

    But every one will play a part

    One note or chord to fill life’s song

    Time too plays quiet, clever tricks

    To alter memories as they age

    Intensifying color, strength

    Or else erasing from the page

    To piece a story that will hold

    Against the siege of life and loss

    To help us keep the things most dear

    Where love and joy and sorrow cross

  • Maze

    How do time and place contrast

    That time goes by but places last?

    Time changes place, then time moves on

    While somehow place holds moments gone

    But pieces of both time and place

    Are carried forward in the race

    They seep within us, mixing, shaping

    And unexpectedly escaping

    To mold and meld with future time

    To give life rhythm, tone, and rhyme

    How do time and place entwine

    To mark events where they align?

    Abstract and tangible unite

    And pieces of a story write

    Then move on forward to the next

    Unless preserved in mind or text

    That keep past stories living on

    To make a space where we belong

    We mark these moments in life’s climb

    Through the maze of place and time

  • Change

    Sometimes change comes on little cat feet

    Tiptoes in and snatches a seat

    Lurks in a corner til you notice it’s there

    And challenges you to meet its stare

    Sometimes change comes in a tidal wave

    No warning or chance to escape it gave

    Before striking and washing all plans out to sea

    Leaving a brand new reality

    Sometimes change comes as an ice cold wind

    Creeping, filling where warmth had been

    Invisibly changing the air that you breathe

    No choice but to act or you will freeze

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  • Time

    Time moves like the rising tide

    Slow but unstoppable force

    Time spreads like the ocean wide

    Subtly ever changing course

    Time creeps like a stalking cat

    Sneaking up when no one sees

    Time frays like an old straw hat

    Losing pieces to the breeze

    Time comes like a doorbell’s ring

    Paths converging now and here

    Time goes like a northern spring

    Slips away until next year

    Time always marked and measured

    Synchronizing rhythm, rhyme

    Time can’t touch moments treasured

    Experiences not bound by time

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