Poems for Winterfest

Written in the Fall of 2007

Daria Smith

A Single Candle to Move the Night

The darkness breathes on me
filling me with cold dread.
Another night.
Within the darkness, a hand
touching me with warmth.
Hope awaits.
Distantly a light flickers
dazzling me with its hope.
I’m home.

 

 

Life Below

The yellow glow brings light to the dark.
Familiar shapes dance warily
in grotesque ballet across the walls.
The wax begins to melt.
The bells sing their familiar tunes.
Passage ways in darkness smile as the chorus of messages plays on…
The pipes bring life.
Footsteps, dust unsettled,
swirls lazily.
A cloak hem, dirty, billows
moving cautiously.
Life Below cannot be seen.
Life Above is only noise,
and then, the night.

 

 

Peacefully

He sits peacefully amid the storm of emotion
Waiting
Always remembering.
Connected but alone, the candles melt away
Wondering
And still there is no answer.
Afraid to touch with hands too strong to tame
Wanting
She reaches for him.
Closing his eyes, she is there as before
Knowing
Embracing they are all that is.

 

I Await

The nights are longer now.
Enveloped by the darkness I think of thee
My wait for daybreak comes too soon.
Amid the stars, their noise silenced by the city’s rush,
You are there, as fate’s cruel hand moves us apart.
No longer do I see the lines where your hand and mine meet.
We are now as one, in mind, in soul, in heart.
I look in your soul and I’m welcomed to a warmth I’ve never known.
How can it be?
Our lives once separate, now so richly entwined.
My heart waits through the night.

 

No Words

What words are left to speak, which have not yet been said of love?
A true love can no longer be possessed by the poets.
And so it is that all my words are puny –
Unable and unworthy – to capture the power, the depth, the love
These two hearts share.

 

 

Below

I care naught for the world which cast me out;
which fears my presence.
Your words and music soothe the fires that rage within
Yet peace does not come.

 

 

Her Name

Catherine!
Her name sings to me
and then all is still.
All there is between Earth and Heaven
beats within my breast.
Catherine!

 

 

 

Door

No longer cast out, I am embraced and fear is a memory.
Her voice, her touch are all that now exist,
And the world must find another door to enter.
The Dawn
The quiet hours, the peace of night, when darkness envelops me.
The wind is raging beyond the glass, but here I’m safe and warm.
I feel you here, a calm, washing over me.
And then stillness.
I awake at the light of dawn,
and you were only a dream.

 

 

Beauty

Your beauty inspires me
to write songs.
But I have no music.
There is no melody more lovely than your voice.
Your beauty inspires me
to paint pictures.
But I have no canvas.
There is only your face, forever etched in my memory.
Your beauty inspires me
to dance.
But I have no rhythm to move.
There is only your eyes that dance and shine and throw off the darkness.
Your beauty inspires me
to write poems.
But I have no words.
There is only me and the beauty you open within me…
And then there is joy!

The Clock

Insistant.
The clock continues to tick.
Rhythmically it marches on.
What is the hurry?
You are near and time stands still.
The gentle tap of the second hand fades.
The sound of your voice calls me to you
You are here.
There is no need to hurry.
The minutes become a lifetime.
The grain of sand which cannot pass through the hourglass
Holds us here.
Now there is only you and I.
What is the hurry?