I’m not sure what I fear
Something in the darkness
Where the light’s too dim
To illuminate
So I rely on the beacon
To guide my way
Toward a point of reckoning
Fear with every step
In equal measure hope
On which I lay my trust
I’m not sure what I fear
Something in the darkness
Where the light’s too dim
To illuminate
So I rely on the beacon
To guide my way
Toward a point of reckoning
Fear with every step
In equal measure hope
On which I lay my trust
It was in her eyes
Where I first read
Words unspoken
Words arising
From her mind
Her heart
Her spirit
In those eyes
Was love
And disappointment
Hope
And discouragement
To hold that gaze
I would have to do better
Have to be
Better
Not just for her
But for myself
In those eyes
I read a truth
About me
I didn’t like
Huddled and swaddled
Against the chill
The platform
Covered from the rainy mist
But the breeze bites
Even through the blankets
In a mood neither bleak nor hopeful
But resolute and assured
For while the train is late
It is all but inevitable
And will take us from here
To somewhere else
Where somewhere else
May be work
Or home
Or family or friends
Somewhere we’ll find
Something we need
Or let go of something we don’t
Perhaps the only value
Of waiting here
Is to be able to step off
Somewhere else
Somewhere that is not here
And
For the moment
That is enough
The path I find myself upon
Began within a vast unknown
In which I couldn’t find my heart
Though the path, it seems
Unwinds in random ways
Through places unfamiliar
A light calls out
Both day and night
Drawing ever nearer
The road I travel
Seems ever bound for darkened sky
Though the curve ahead
Suggests reprieve
So I stay the course
Hope good fortune
Diverts me once again
To better light
Adieu the day
Which meets its fiery end
Adieu the thoughts
Which plague my dreary head
Adieu the world
Which fills me with a weary dread
To bed
Where downy warmth, my flight
To sleep
Where hope, my dreams alight
To wake
Where sunrise sets the world aright
Beyond the headlands
And the sea
Sunrise pierces
Morning mist
While a fog
Engulfs me
Impenetrably
So, walk the shore
Where there, at least
The mist will rise
Along the path
Find nature’s beauty
Tenacious star
Breaks through what once
Was naught but darkness
Girds my faith
This sun’s path so too my own
Now navigate this darkened murk
To find again the light within
The pickup passes
Flicking a long tail of dust
Which prairie winds
Spread like golden icing
Across a latent landscape
Under sunset sky
Farmland is always a realm
Of hope and promise
And possibility
While also of heartbreak
And tragedy and ruin
As is any venture reliant
On the whims of nature
A single storm defines
The outcome of an entire season
For good or ill
Is saviour or saboteur
Or, as here, in Empress
No storm comes at all
And the glory of a golden-hour transformation
Only masks the calamity of dust
He saw change coming
Had to come
Life altering change
Had to be
He’d come to a cul de sac
Every step now
Just circled the perimeter
But what next?
What path led forward?
He had no idea
All he had
Was a little sparkle
Of hope
Enough for the confidence
To step out of the circle