Sunday, April 17, 2011

Hope/Darkness


It can’t be helped.
I see verdant life,
light slipping
between the bars
of my window

forcing a way
into my darkness
like a seed
in a stone wall,
glowing with promise

shining with possibility
overwhelming with potential
hope forcing a way
into my darkness.
I reach but the bars

block my way
see don’t touch
see can’t touch,
my darkness forcing
a way into the light.

To see more poems prompted by the picture and several others, please visit One Shot Sunday at One Stop Poetry.

Photograph by James Rainford for One Stop Poetry. Used with permission.
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20 comments:

  1. Duane ScottApril 17, 2011 at 12:27 AM

    I really like this post, Glynn.

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  2. dustusApril 17, 2011 at 12:31 AM

    Great image of a seed in a stone wall glowing with promise—works wonderfully with prompt. Toward the end: "see don’t touch / see can’t touch," ...Awesome, sounds like the speaker is straining to reach. Thanks, Glynn

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  3. AnonymousApril 17, 2011 at 12:52 AM

    well done.
    your words relate the feelings of being in a place of darkness but, reaching for the light. hope shining.

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  4. Kerry O'ConnorApril 17, 2011 at 12:59 AM

    This is a great picture and a clever metaphoric response to it.

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  5. signed...bkmApril 17, 2011 at 1:08 AM

    A wonderful piece on hope and possiblity...even in the darkest of places....bkm

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  6. Kodjo DeynooApril 17, 2011 at 4:14 AM

    The light coming in is always positive and positivity is what a poem should always bring out

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  7. AnonymousApril 17, 2011 at 4:30 AM

    It's amazing how the green, glowing, loving world seems just out of reach, like the brass ring on the merry-go-round, the life not lived forever just outside the walls of self. Very fine dig here - Brendan

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  8. Brian MillerApril 17, 2011 at 6:34 AM

    nicely played glynn, so close yet so far away...similar feeling i had when i saw the pic...happy sunday friend...

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  9. JerryApril 17, 2011 at 7:03 AM

    I like how the light reaches to your darkness in the beginnin g and by the end your darkness is reaching for the light...that is a deep truth. Thanks for speaking into my life through your words.

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  10. Karen Kyle EricsonApril 17, 2011 at 7:55 AM

    It's like that moment when my life stands still while everyone else is moving on. I seem stuck in a hospital bed or bad experience. I see others laughing and dancing. But I can't. Each day I inch toward the light until I am once again alive.

    Beautiful! Thanks Glynn!

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  11. ClaudiaApril 17, 2011 at 8:13 AM

    hope forcing a way into darkness and darkness forcing a way into light...

    good capture if things seem to be so close but somehow we're locked off and blocked and cannot get to them..

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  12. MaureenApril 17, 2011 at 9:57 AM

    This poem is particularly apt as we enter Holy Week.
    Good poem, Glynn.

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  13. ReflectionsApril 17, 2011 at 10:31 AM

    The neverending battle to find hope within the darkness... light glimmering, yet encumbered. Nicely written.

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  14. AnonymousApril 17, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    Clever and inspirational metaphor Glynn. Hope springs eternal!

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  15. S. EtoleApril 17, 2011 at 11:29 AM

    those last two lines ... pondering them

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  16. hedgewitchApril 17, 2011 at 11:40 AM

    Intelligently simple is my favorite kind of construction and you've done that here; a perfectly executed turn, and an elusive, wise point that seems obvious when made, yet isn't. Always a pleasure to read your work, Glynn.

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  17. SimplyDarleneApril 17, 2011 at 12:49 PM

    And the light does slip in. What will we do with it?

    You always inspire, not with just your form and master of things literary, but with your reflections of His light.

    Blessings.

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  18. UnknownApril 17, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    really great to read this thank you

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  19. James RainsfordApril 17, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    This so captures the feeling of being trapped, yet seeing the world denied the prisoner. Brilliant interpretation of the photo.

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  20. DelitaApril 17, 2011 at 10:54 PM

    Love the pic you picked for the posts and the two last lines are so deep.

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