I wonder if I will be able to keep up this poem a day poetry writing practice through to the New Year? I would like to think so, but the pace is ratcheting up for holiday preparation. I have hand made Christmas presents on the go – one and a half done, one and a half to go, and no they are not poems! I have funded projects to finish and have two schools visits over the next two weeks. And like almost everything in 2018, schedules have been very changeable. There has been a lot of flux and flow under the bridge, perhaps mirroring a general instability or jitteriness. But this poem a day writing has become a still point in what often manifests as a Crazyville world. It’s very wearing. And though I am more often a night owl who cannot fall asleep, some evenings even I drop off early. Then, eight hours later I lie awake listening to how the house breathes.
Waking in the Darkness
Waking in the morning darkness
at a time beyond the hour
of fear and trembling, no
–
waking at the time of cat’s eye clarity
in a silence so profound
it is undisturbed by whirr
of owl wing or bat’s squeak.
The world is just breathing.
In night’s muffled velvet
Venus sparkles large and cold and bright,
a maharajah’s giant jewel.
And she is not lonesome
in a suddenly crowded sky.
It is as if all the dying stars from
light years’ away have burst
their last glory to their final witness
one soul speaking to another.
Copyright Bee Smith 2018
Sojourning Smith 