What shines
through all this darkness
shines through us,
setting every shattered thing
into a new constellation
~Jan Richardson
Happy Poetry Friday! Today I've got poems about coming home again and the shortest day.
After a Long Absence, I Return
by Constance Brewer
I pass a flock of red winged blackbirds.
They startle, rise and fall like breath,
arrow away across an open field,
disappear into fine river mist.
Alone in a shrouded world,
hills rise from thinning fog.
After so long away, the road is new.
I trust the GPS, drive to our old house,
an approaching specter in the fog.
read the rest here
******************
Solstice
by Barbara Crooker
These are dark times. Rumors of war
rise like smoke in the east. Drought
widens its misery. In the west, glittering towers
collapse in a pillar of ash and dust. Peace,
a small white bird, flies off in the clouds.
read the rest here
******************
Janice Scully has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Janice!
12 comments:
This is Patricia. Two lines : Morning sun hammers the clouds and the darkness does not complete it — They could go together!
That quote! Perfect here at the end of my LIGHT year...thank you. And the Barbara Crooker poem. Love! Thank you, Tabatha. You are light! xo
I love both these poems, Tabatha! I certainly appreciated the hope in the last stanza of Solstice. And I could feel the magic of returning to your home in the first. the red winged blackbird is a bird I got to know as a child flittering near the roads I rode my bike down as a child. Such a striking bird! Thanks for sharing these.
Your first poem selection truly captures that sensation of being away and the sudden fast-forward of time in one’s mind as it makes sense of the present moment. Thank you for leaving us with the hopeful light in the darkness. And thank you for organizing the end-of-year gift swap – which feels also feels like a light in the darkness. :)
That use of the word, "apparition" touches my heart, Tabatha, as I see changes in my own family and I love Barbara Crooker, so thanks for her beautiful, and hopeful, words, "And the darkness is not complete". Have a wonderful weekend!
Thanks for sharing -- loved both of these. The first has such lovely, vivid images and the feeling of coming home again is perfectly captured and so relatable. Barbara's poignant poem is good for this time of year -- we need the light of hope in such dark times.
Oh, these are wonderful. Those rumors like smoke and collapsing towers feel horrible and magical and epic...
Oh wow, you know I love both of these! I can see those Red-winged Blackbirds so clearly in my mind...
Thank you for both of these lovely poems this morning! I just finished reading a collection of Barbara Crooker's poems, but "Solstice" was new to me. I feel hope in both of these selections.
Thanks for shining a light through all the darkness via your post and poems Tabatha, and Jan Richardson’s quote— I hold fast to the bits of light in all and the contemplation and calm they bring!
Magical poems. By chance, this morning I completing a ( lightly early) Summer Solstice swim with my swimming group. As i read the solstice poem I was remined that summer solstice in the south means winter solstice in the north - AND that means that there is light where there is dark. Something for me ponder.
Both good ole poems for a middle aged poet like myself. Some things you cannot see without years of wisdom behind you. These are both perfect for that. The seeing of the brother with a little more weight and gray...the war in the east despite Christmas ligths. Great poems to reflect on.
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