I write poems, because the process helps me think and because it brings me great joy.  Writing seems to be the gift given to me to light myself out of darkness.  By darkness I don’t necessarily mean depression, although at times, writing certainly keeps me from hiding in the darkness of depressing times.  By darkness I mean all sorts of things, from everyday life, to confounding problems, to suffering; darkness is all those things that mystery dwells in, that sometimes layer around me so that I feel the weight of them all.  Working a poem, is like lighting a candle in that darkness; it lights the way, keeps me moving through it and it helps me see it with a little more clarity.

So this is a love poem about the process of ‘poem-ing’ — well, about my process anyway.

The Candle

I love the way
light from one candle
worn like a cloak
and wielded as a wedge
sloughs off darkness –
even cavernous darkness;
it holds open a circle
that is enough

to light a poem

one word catches in the heart,
one image spreads in the mind’s eye
fed with oxygen rich imagination
igniting a confabulation
and the cavern becomes a cathedral
lit mysteriously, inviting
exploration, elaboration,
out of the dark,
a revelation.

© 2017 – Laurel Archer

Picture – LA