Sunlight and Shadows

Finding poetry in star dust, sunbeams, and passing clouds

  • 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

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  • 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

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  • Joy

    Joy makes people happy,

    Cheers up people too,

    It makes work go faster,

    And everything we do!

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  • Never Give Up

    The storm has finally broken

    We stand here in its wake

    Battered, bruised, and weary

    But we would not break

    The quiet calm belies

    The fragments left behind

    A long road still ahead

    Life’s pieces we will find

    The dark, malicious threat

    Lurks in the background still

    But we have strength to fight

    And beat this foe we will

    We never would give up

    With faith we know we’ll win

    Claim victory in His power

    And rise up strong again

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  • Low Point

    No words, no thoughts, empty inside

    Worries, feelings, can barely hide

    Try to reach out, you know you should

    Wrong things, wrong time, misunderstood

    It’s okay, it’s just today

    You won’t always feel this way

    Jump in, get back into the game

    You’re still so far from where you came

    You really have good things to share

    And people notice if you’re there

    A low point means you’ve grown somehow

    Things will start getting better now

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  • Old West

    Sunrise, sunset in the west

    Prairie days of summer’s best

    Cattle wrangling morn til night

    Lay around the fire to rest

    Short grass, tall grass in the wind

    Dry dust rising round the bend

    Underneath wide open skies

    Upward, outward freedom send

    Treasured, carefree nights in town

    Lively dances, fiddle sound

    Neighbors bonded near and far

    Toughest friendships here are found

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