To a semi-circle 2: seeking joy

Rainbow over Tanay, Manila
Rainbow over Tanay, Manila

 

I greet you once again – transected;

put asunder, rent in twain.

This sudden loss – so unexpected;

fullness fractured, comfort slain.

Those shadowed hours creep, oh so slowly.

Earth’s deep pain: a silent roar.

We see in part that thing, most holy

promise of a brighter shore.

 

 

Tears of grief rain down, unbaden

the sun, concealed, completes her arc.

The dove returns once more, unladen,

weary of the lingering dark.

Till from aloft the lookout shouts, “Ahoy!”

The half-bow that we see against the rain

is but a herald of a world made whole again.

 

Helen making rainbows in the waterfall at Tanay, Manila, January 2012
Helen making rainbows in the waterfall at Tanay, Manila, January 2012

To a semi-circle: seeking wisdom

protractor

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Alone among the shapes I meet,

you rest, content and incomplete;

no rounded symmetry I see,

nor perfect immortality.

Your half-formed body, foetal soul

seems broken, wounded, far from whole.

Your pair of angles doesn’t quite

square the circle, set things right.

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Yet, should I look beyond such flaws,

open up my blinkered doors,

perhaps I’d see through different eyes:

your gentle promise, silver-bright

shining half-moon in the night.

half_moon