Saturday, June 20, 2015

Carole Ann Borges: "Light"



                                                  No, my friends
                                                  darkness is not everywhere
                                                  for here and there
                                                  I find faces illuminated
                                                  from within.
                                                  Japanese lanterns
                                                  floating
                                                  among dark trees



"Light" by Carole Ann Borges. Text as published in Noble Beast (an online journal, 1997). © Carole Ann Borges. Reprinted by permission of the poet. Carole Ann's most recent book is Dreamseeker's Daughter (CreateSpace, 2013).

Art credit: "Lamps #5—Japanese paper lanterns," photograph taken at the Om Gallery, Santa Cruz, California (USA) on July 17, 2010, by gwen.

Curator's note: I offer this poem as a lament for the loss of life in this week's massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina (USA). I offer it as well as encouragement to those who have been, and continue to be, traumatized by such acts of violence, and to all of us who would be light together, illuminating the deep night until morning.

May morning break soon.

My sincere apologies for not posting a poem in response to this tragedy sooner. I had shoulder surgery this week. I want to thank my friend Ruby Wilson for managing the project with prepared posts in my absence.



4 comments :

  1. Thank you for your daily offering Phyllis. The daily poem life-jacket you throw into the troubled waters of this world has saved many a life. It has definitely saved mine, one poem at a time, one day at a time.

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    Replies
    1. You're very welcome. I'm glad that the poems buoy you up. It's my privilege to toss them around in the water, where I, too, am thrashing around. Be well.

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  2. Thank you. I will be reading her poem in memoriam on the Sunday at the Joseph Priestley Chapel in Northumberland, PA.

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