Two poems for the readers' perusal
Lumen
When tempted to light more than one
consider how much a single
lit candle may say
especially one you light
from another left by someone
you cannot name.
On days you find no such link
then leave your candle unlit
in the lowest place
trusting some other to come
with a light to share.
Michael Coady
The Shadow
Would lope behind him up the mountains
whistling a tune or resting, hands on hips,
and stroll with him through fields of crackling wheat
listening to his distracted murmurings;
it sat beside him on the wind-drenched boat
that reared up, whale-like, on the lake, and sang
a song of comfort only he could hear;
he could not see it in the starlit garden
but it was kneeling there, with palms raised up.
When he was executed on the hill
it merged into the shadow of the tree
the stormlight branded on the silvery mud,
waiting until the spirit left his body;
and in the silence of the place of tombs
when he shone like a thousand burning candles
it had already gone back home
to join the dark beyond the light, to wait
for him, its earthly shadow, to return.
James Harpur