Just do it.
Don't leave that smile inside your head.
Don't let the light be trapped,
or darkness even think that it
has found a shadowed head.
Blink
both eyes.
Try it. See.
Now smile, just smile.
If summer rain can come-
in daylight,
deep steeped in fall,
if sun can somehow shine on shoulders
while rain drips down my cheek,
if light can show the dark defeat
of all that death can offer,
then leave those darkest dreams
inside death's coffered chest
and so fling wide the shutters
-break hinges-
never to be closed again.
remove the doors that barred the light inside-
or so you thought.
Just smile.
Someone needs a home-
your hand is on the door.
Did you write that? I especially like the part about breaking the hinges.
ReplyDeleteI've always said if you smile on the outside you'll feel better on the inside.
Yes, I wrote it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes it has a lot of things that have influenced the imagery in it. Definitely some of the things that you have said over the years, other things that I've thought about since writing it are a particular chapter in Phantastes by George MacDonald, an old record that we had when we were kids ("...and the whole world smiles, too!"), possibly even some Edgar Allen Poe. Also, from the sermon on the mount,Matthew 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light." I still don't understand that one fully, but I like thinking about it. The way that Dave Burdett's eyes reminded me of Jesus' when I was with him fixing a widow's stove in Mexico on house-building trip.
I wrote it yesterday directly onto my blog in the time it takes to type it.
I was just walking in to my room, and saw my computer and at the same instant felt a poem coming. So, I just opened up the computer and wrote it. I went back and spent about five minutes editing a few lines to follow the rhythm correctly, but that's all.
It was fun.
I really liked this a lot. Good reminder today. Thanks.
ReplyDelete