Thursday, September 27, 2018

To the Lighthouse


Poem created from my essay "To the Lighthouse?" based on a line
from Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name.

Yesterday, burgeoning in the meadow

white blossoms on greening branches

birdsong at daybreak

Earth spinning in its orbit

all distractions from pain and passing time,

regrets and remembrance of loss.


Today, reading under grey skies

I saw the lines

“Bowed down she was with weariness”

I heard a distant train whistle

a church bell chiming five

lobster boats setting out to raise up the traps

all arrows piercing through

my small morning pleasures.


By the sea I am but it's raining.

“drizzle” I calls it.

I like the sound of “drizzle,” 

“plaintive, “mournful.”


Once I believed “there would be time enough"

“tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”

Was it all for naught?

 

It must be the pain.

If not for its darkness--

the brighter light of reason


But the window of perception is clear.

I see through—

The arrows hit their mark.

It was all for naught.

Bowed down I am with weariness.


Prometheus chained, and I too--

bound to a rock of my own making

blossoms, falling rain

church bells and lobster traps

mournful memories


Tide rushing in 

caught in the torrent

deluge to drown in


Then, from the bell tower—seven chimes

The rain has stopped

No birds sing

Earth still spinning in its orbit


Where will I lay my head? 

Where will I leave my heart? 

What will I leave behind?

Where will I row my little boat lost in the darkness?

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