This week’s featured writer brings us an inspiring poem both rich and spare in its language and execution. As you move through the stanzas, notice how light and dark, day and night dissolve, as you’re simultaneously invited to fly from earth to sky and back again. Congratulations to Shivani on a delicate and wondrous poem perfect for a summer evening.
Dark to Light
lost in the suffocating darkness
lost in thought
you see black
you see white
you see beautiful designs
unfold
black as dark as coal
silver and gold
white as bright as the sun
black
large black
large black sky
large black painting
at night
the sky is dark
children get scared
because all they
see is black
at night when we
look up we
see nothing
then
we see stars
white sparkling
wonders light
the soulless sky
we see the stars
we see hope
hope fills the sky
when we look
close
when we look
deep
we see pictures
unfold
they line up to
form
pictures
in the night sky
created by twinkling
wonders
under the bright
night sky we
see the choking
darkness.
Shivani, ninth grade, Badgerdog Creative Writing Summer Camp
July 13th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Your poem reminds me of the night skies above the Grand Canyon and how somehow, ironically, the universe feels smaller and more claustrophobic, the more stars there are in the sky. I feel as if I am lying there now, lulled in contemplation of light and dark. Thanks for taking me back there, Shivani.