Memory of a park bench on a winter night
.
We may say
We seek the light,
When in fact it hardly
Ever lets us go,
Surrounding us in
Its patient holds
It has us, we children
Thinking we feel so
Searchingly the need
To open, look and see.
.
But it can
Still surprise us
Sometimes, when dawn
Mixes softly with white linens
Bending on a quiet morning
In the breeze.
.
Or it can
Also clobber
As when switches are
Flipped upward
Sharply bringing a
A flood of stinging
Daggers to the eyes,
Clarity grumbly rubbing
Itself out into the day.
.
Light tries to die
Only in glorious gasps
And pyres,
But I am not
Remembering sunsets
Drowning fires,
But just all the
Slowly nourished
Lies and expectations
We learn at
First breathings
In the morning of the day,
Carefully clinging
Like frost etched
Onto the branches
Of the trees
Until that searching
Touch of sunshine
Makes it seem
Briefly the whole
World were singing
In a small corner
Before the dancing
Glitter burns away.
.
But here now
In this night,
I close my eyes
To neither pray
Nor rale against
The dark.
But to rest
Where it holds
Me here, between
The avenues where
A bird laughs
At the moonlight
And black waters
Circle slowly in the park,
And your hand
Rises into mine,
A soft shoulder
Leans against me
Leading into nothing
That we know
But questions breathing
In each other where
Even still behind
This blackness
Of lids closing
And lips touching
And hope waiting
A garden might yet grow.
.
-Lona Gynt, December 2020, All Rights reserved.
.
This is linked to Open Link Night over at dVerse. Hosted by Bjorn. Link on over.
Scattered thoughts made a little more random 
AWWW, this is so beautiful. ❤ ❤ What a well-written and emotional piece.
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Thank You Lucy!!! 🙂
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I like the many ways that you describe light: holding, surprising, even clobbering sometimes. My favorite part is in the beginning, the reminder that the light “hardly ever lets us go,” though we are constantly searching for it, unaware of it.
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Thank you, that part was added today after the piece had been sitting for a year. Light can sneak up on us, even while sitting on a bench n the dark. 🙂
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“A garden of love.” Lona ❤ Carly and Carly ❤ Lona. Doesn't get any better than that. Happy for you two.
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Thank you Lisa. 🙂 Lona luvs Carly indeed!
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🙂
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A lovely memory and dedication, Lona. Romance shields against the cold. I find these lines particularly captivating:
‘Sometimes, when dawn
Mixes softly with white linens
Bending on a quiet morning
In the breeze.’
I also love:
‘A bird laughs
At the moonlight
And black waters
Circle slowly in the park,
And your hand
Rises into mine’.
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Thank you Kim. I am so glad you liked those parts. When I first wrote this, I called it “Autumn Night” it was in early November of last year. But in thinking back to it, it was a pretty cold night, cold enough to qualify as a winter poem. I am glad somebody noticed the bird. 🙂
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I like the way light and dark overlap in your images. Both contain sorrow and joy. I am so happy for you and Carly. The peacefulness and hope at the end of your poem is just what we all need right now. (K)
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I am glad you saw the beautiful darkness here in concert with the light. I am grateful for all my sweet Carly is giving me.
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The light is a magical thing that has an effect on everything. I think every light is a little darkness and every darkness has a little light. I especially like this line: Light tries to die / Only in glorious gasps / And pyres.
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Thank you. yo are correct, light wouldn’t know what it was for without darkness, and darkness would be absolutely just void without light. I am glad you liked those lines about light dying, I am not sure they are always accurate, ie: when the dusk on a cloudy day fades slowly and imperceptibly to night. but the image does hold with blazing sunsets, and fireworks, and sparks crackling upward from a fire, and even on a small level with the small explosions that are erased when a light switch is turned, and When the frost refracts brilliantly into dissipation.
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A beautiful intimacy
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I am glad that you see that here friend
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I do 🙂
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Beautiful imagery. I enjoyed the contrast and movement of the light and darkness and in the end the acceptance that you can rest in the dark – I see it metaphorically here as a questioning what will come in the future. I supposed the dark is when we need faith. The light is the times we are enlightened and yes, is it fleeting and can leave abruptly in “glorious gasps.” I love a poem that makes me think philosophically! 💕
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I am so glad this resonated with you, when the way is dark in front of us it can be hard to know what will be coming, but sometimes light can also be deceiving and is certainly fleeting, like the frost. I don’t know if they are always in juxtaposition, your comment actually brought Psalm 139:12 to mind:
“Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
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Yes, a beautiful scripture. I suppose light can be deceiving, 2 Corinthians 11:14 comes to mind with Satan masquerading as an angel of light. It is interesting how light and darkness are used in the Bible throughout, as well as other ancient texts. ✨
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They are the two basic templates for our World in our experiences with it. I appreciate your thoughtful reading of my poem!
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My pleasure!
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We look all over for that light only to find it shining steadily within. Even better to find it shining back from another! So gently, sweetly wrought, this poem.
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That is exactly right. Such a joy
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Where there is love there is light.
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Zactly! She has brought me so much of that! 🙂
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First I did love how you captured the romance, but also how I fell that night protects you in ways that daylight cannot… great dedication to the first steps, falling in love.
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That is a great insight, and that protection was one of my main feelings. The initial draft was actually written in response to the wonderful events of that night, but also by Anmol’s prompt last November about darkness. I just had not finished it until the other day. I ought to let him know. Appreciate all you do for dVerse 🙂
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This is incredibly beautiful and deep! I love; “Light tries to die only in glorious gasps and pyres.” Wow!! 💝💝💝
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Thank you Sanaa!
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As I was reading this, it was like uncovering layers–or perhaps unwrapping a present–that gift of love. And there is such peace in these lines:
In this night,
I close my eyes
To neither pray
Nor rale against
The dark.
But to rest
Where it holds
Me here, between
The avenues where
A bird laughs
At the moonlight. . .
I know you’ve had a difficult time the last few years, and I’m happy you’ve found a new love. Best wishes on your engagement! ❤️
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Merril, thank you so much, that is such a wonderful image and reading, I do think that layers of wrapping has been removed bit by bit to reveal this joy I am having now. Makes me tear a bit to think of it, I am grateful for you friend. We can think we know for years and decades and entire lifetimes that a plan or “the light” if yo will is mapped out in front of us, and even thaough it looks so clear or even beautiful, if it runs counter to a deep hidden emotionsl truth, it will never just bring peace. I have found more peace in that dark that night, hiding from others and their eyes and their judgments, and just feeling the truth of being there with a person who sees me, truly, and cared only about me becasue of the essential me, not becasue of the planned me, or the gospel me, or the dogmatic me, or the assignedsocietal role me, but about me, and for me to see her the same way, the feelings running counter to every trick of light I thought I had known and defended and taught and committed to, and yet in the end could not bring peace. The darkheld and fed me, it was so nice , but it was cold, which was amenable to sitting close on that bench 🙂
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❤️
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