“Silence and Shadow”

The rest (she says) is silence—
Ah! Lord, let me not forget
The shadows of your glory
You once granted eyes to see.

Here I go on in shadow—
But let light live on within
That points me past the shadows
To the certainty not seen.

I wrote the first stanza above in or before October 2014; I seem to recall the opening line had been rattling around in my mind for months if not years, but getting beyond the sixth word felt like an accomplishment. And then there it sat, labeled a “too-short fragment,” for nearly a decade, until I tweaked one line, then wrote the start of a second stanza, about a year and a half ago. The following summer I brought it to what I felt was a reasonable facsimile of a satisfying conclusion, in the form you see above. At that point I decided the poem, though still decidedly “fragmentary,” is as complete as it’s likely to ever get, and so worth making public.

I always welcome your comments, questions, or other feedback about this or any other part of my work. If you’d like to read more of my poetry, you can get my book, which contains over sixty of my best poems; browse my archive, much of it also broken down into more-manageable groups; or follow this blog for new poetry (among other things)—at least two poems per month through next Easter. You may also share this poem with others, subject to my sharing policy.

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