For The Sunday Muse prompt #121. After Emily Dickinson.
**
Hope is the thing
that shimmers
in the distance
the faint light
flickering in the
brooding stillness
of the afternoon heat,
the persistent promise
that this thirst, this
longing for restoring
will be sated by rain.
It is the pulse
quickening with the
lengthening shadows
of evening and the
return of familiar
sights to the eyes.
It is home
calling the lost son
to return to the
dangerous duty
of tending.
Parting is all we know of hell*
Heaven the delightful linger of the touch of love’s spell.
—
For the Day 19 prompt at NaPoWriMo; not quite a formal landay but this will have to do 🙂
*Paraphrased from Emily Dickinson’s My life closed twice before its close (96)
 Jacob Wrestling With The Angel, Rembrandt (1659)
[Source]
A little East of Jordan, Evangelists record, A Gymnast and an Angel Did wrestle long and hard Till morning touching mountain And Jacob, waxing strong, The Angel begged permission To Breakfast – to return! Not so, said cunning Jacob! “I will not let thee go Except thou bless me” – Stranger! The which acceded to Light swung the silver fleeces “Peniel” Hills beyond, And the bewildered Gymnast Found he had worsted God!
—
East of Jordan,
a gymnast and an angel wrestle
till morning, Jacob waxing strong.
The angel begged
permission to return;
Light swung the silver fleeces;
The bewildered gymnast found
he had worsted God
—
An erasure poem of sorts for the NaPoWriMo Day 5 Prompt – Correcting or Re-breaking Dickinson; based on Emily Dickinson’s A Little East Of Jordan.
A Geek's Life 