Total Darkness

Photo by Sam Moqadam on Unsplash

The light dwindles down

to nothing as

the candle sputters out.

And the darkness begins

to shine its own fury.

Darkness as deep as

the earth is that lays

itself upon the dead

so that they sleep well

and all is quiet for them.

Darkness as deep as

the sky is that takes our

prayers out where

nothing has ever been

found that answers back.

That darkness is what will

happen when the light

of the stars dwindles

out before dawn and all

starlight at last blinks out.

And that light in your

eyes when it dwindles

away, at the end of time,

will join all those

same darknesses that

belong together, that

total darkness of the earth,

the sky, and the soul.

~ Sue Owen

The Sky Is Clear, But It's Raining

Credit: Sunny Rain from Eden on the Bay Mall

Under the trees, where everything

Is still possible in prescribed doses:

Hundreds of accordion-like units

Without edges. But there is no unwinding

Of minutes to stay the execution

Of a rain-shot weekend in early

Beach weather, no elixir

To revive the amputated flower

Still kicking on its ghost-stem

In a bowl of water, no direction

In which to steer

The hapless, puzzled out-of-towner

Other than straight ahead,

To the sheer drop-off

Where his guidebook gutters

Or deposits him, addressless,

In thin air.

~ Donald Britton

Travelogue for Exiles

Source: Skipwall.com 

Look and remember. Look upon this sky;

Look deep and deep into the sea-clean air,

The unconfined, the terminus of prayer.

Speak now and speak into the hallowed dome.

What do you hear? What does the sky reply?

The heavens are taken: this is not your home.

Look and remember. Look upon this sea;

Look down and down into the tireless tide.

What of a life below, a life inside,

A tomb, a cradle in the curly foam?

The waves arise; sea-wind and sea agree

The waters are taken: this is not your home.

Look and remember. Look upon this land,

Far, far across the factories and the grass.

Surely, there, surely they will let you pass.

Speak then and ask the forest and the loam.

What do you hear? What does the land command?

The earth is taken: this is not your home.

~ Karl Jay Shapiro

Travelogue for Exiles

Source: Skipwall.com 

Look and remember. Look upon this sky;

Look deep and deep into the sea-clean air,

The unconfined, the terminus of prayer.

Speak now and speak into the hallowed dome.

What do you hear? What does the sky reply?

The heavens are taken: this is not your home.

Look and remember. Look upon this sea;

Look down and down into the tireless tide.

What of a life below, a life inside,

A tomb, a cradle in the curly foam?

The waves arise; sea-wind and sea agree

The waters are taken: this is not your home.

Look and remember. Look upon this land,

Far, far across the factories and the grass.

Surely, there, surely they will let you pass.

Speak then and ask the forest and the loam.

What do you hear? What does the land command?

The earth is taken: this is not your home.

~ Karl Jay Shapiro

Voices from the Corners of the Sky

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Some of us are leaving now. 

Some of us have done our time.

Some of us were taller candles and had more burning to do.

"Poof," you said, and it was true, "Poof."

Maybe we loved you, but not always.

Maybe you loved us and it will never be done.

We're finished now with lost keys, the dust

of teeth grindings milled mostly at night.

The shimmering is falling off your names and the names

of things, the pots, the colors, the books that fed us.

Whatever language we take with us—the murmur

of flowers fallen face down in the mud, the drink's ice

chinking to seal the sunset, the exhalations at the end

of circling a place to lie down a dog makes, lying down—

think of it as one day coming back to you

in the rain's slow trickle down panes of glass.

Now, please. Let us go

like a meadow of balloons let loose to the sky.

~ Barbara Ras

__________________________________________________

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

~ Helen Keller

Voices from the Corners of the Sky

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Some of us are leaving now. 

Some of us have done our time.

Some of us were taller candles and had more burning to do.

"Poof," you said, and it was true, "Poof."

Maybe we loved you, but not always.

Maybe you loved us and it will never be done.

We're finished now with lost keys, the dust

of teeth grindings milled mostly at night.

The shimmering is falling off your names and the names

of things, the pots, the colors, the books that fed us.

Whatever language we take with us—the murmur

of flowers fallen face down in the mud, the drink's ice

chinking to seal the sunset, the exhalations at the end

of circling a place to lie down a dog makes, lying down—

think of it as one day coming back to you

in the rain's slow trickle down panes of glass.

Now, please. Let us go

like a meadow of balloons let loose to the sky.

~ Barbara Ras

__________________________________________________

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

~ Helen Keller