Heavy Hand

Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow. ~ Wole Soyinka 


Sunset honey spoons the horizon
with summer memories in those
tiny moments before ebony snatches smiles.

I watch the keeper of secrets unfold her cloak
in the breath between comfort and haunting.

Your hand is heavy, Night, upon my brow.
I haven’t a knife to cut light into the fingerprints
you leave upon my dreams.

I have no animosity for the moon or stars.
They sing of forgetting, but your murky palm
pushes me deeper into a river of pain.

Scissor me from this play of fright that steals rest.
Night, I beg….Please come without a burden.


 ©Susie Clevenger 2015
  
 Sunday's Mini-Challenge ~ Wole Soyinka

Comments

Grace said…
I love that we got inspired by the opening line of Night ~ I felt the darkness of Night's murky palm into the river of pain ~ The ending line is perfect, Please come without a burden ~ Don't we all wish for this soothing rest ~

Thanks for linking up with Sunday's Challenge Susie ~ Wishing you happy week ahead ~
March 8, 2015 at 5:45 PM
C.C. said…
Susie, this is the line that spoke to me as well...but what YOU have done with it is beyond anything I could have imagined....so exquisite in the depth of emotion you evoke here. Absolutely stunning. The imagery is so rich with vivd emotion--ebony snatching smiles and fingerprints on dreams...just wow, wow, wow.
March 8, 2015 at 7:14 PM
Jim said…
Susie, this is so very well written. I love how your poem fits right into Soyinka's last, "Night, I beg, ... come."
..
March 8, 2015 at 9:13 PM
Anonymous said…
From those beautiful first three lines to the ending this is exquisite
March 8, 2015 at 9:20 PM
Outlawyer said…
The end of day can bring a heaviness--separate from dreams--your poem expresses that so vividly, Susie--and glad to see I'm not the only one who feels it--thanks. k. (Manicddaily)
March 8, 2015 at 10:54 PM
brudberg said…
The last line - a prayer for a lightness and the bliss of real rest . There is something so inspired yet so different in your words. Wonderful.
March 9, 2015 at 12:05 AM
Anonymous said…
Nice job on a song in Solyinka's style, personifying Night and then making an intimate relationship with it, lover to beloved, with all the happiness and angst and desire mixed in. The spouse of a long marriage, wed since the first night fell upon us. His spell, his thrall is ours!
March 9, 2015 at 4:02 AM
Kerry O'Connor said…
Wow! This is amazing writing, Susie. Your imagery is finely-wrought and the emotion palpable.

I haven’t a knife to cut light into the fingerprints
you leave upon my dreams.

(Double Wow!)
March 9, 2015 at 9:21 AM
Anonymous said…
Really beautiful, without animosity for the moon or stars!
March 9, 2015 at 10:41 AM
Hannah said…
So many facets of the dark and night expressed creatively here, Susie...

I love especially this line, "I watch the keeper of secrets unfold her cloak in the breath between comfort and haunting."

Well done!
March 9, 2015 at 11:00 AM
Anonymous said…
Love how you've describe the night. Haunting and beautiful.
March 9, 2015 at 11:51 AM
Grandmother Mary said…
Night that can steal rest through fright and as the keeper of secrets that haunts rather than comforts- powerful after your light and lovely opening image.
March 9, 2015 at 5:46 PM
Gail said…
sometimes reading takes my breath away...this was one of those times.
March 17, 2015 at 8:25 PM
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