Through Darker Days

I've been asked why so much of my poetry embraces subjects dark and dreary, while eschewing the lambent and luminous. Perhaps I feel that vivid, bright, flashing images need the solemnity of shadow to truly leap from the page onto the canvas of the mind. Maybe the grim realities of life stand in bas relief against the soft pastels of warm and fuzzy days, and the sharp and brilliant flashes of moments of joy.

Without shadows, one cannot navigate in a snow storm. Without dark glasses, a sunny day can give you a headache. I love to sit in the shade of a tree on a hot summer day and to watch the fingers of twilight touch the roof tops at dusk. I do not fear the night, for the morning will follow.

Mick

Through Darker Days

I've been known to travel a shadowed path,
When I journey into my unique past,
In search of my mental redoubt, my rath,
The castle keep of an elegiast.
Though often chimerical and hazy,
My shady songs pierce the ebony veil,
And travel routes labyrinthine, mazy,
For tales my heart wants to share and regale.
Though I journey in darkness obscurely;
Though my words may grow grim with frustration;
I have faith that my sojourn must surely,
Reach its haven of illumination.
For the sun will rise and deal death to night,
And the shadow owes its birth to the light.

Mick McKellar
February 2012