Love and Light Revisited

Early in the life of this blog, I posted some poignant and penetrating Haiku poetry by poet Helen Schulman. One of those posts took its title from her words: "Light and love sustain."

As we move through the final days of 2011, it seems fitting to return to contemplate these essences, light and love; something that the following poem by Katherine Walker does beautifully. Katherine's most recently published collection of poems is Copper Psalms and Dusty Rainbows. As we approach the next year of our lives, I'll be posting additional poetry by Katherine, whose work, I find, has a welcome combination of gentleness and strength, of realization and affirmation.
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Things that mattered so much to us then
things held tightly and dear
those everyday things will not matter at all
in the light of eternity's dawn.

People we voted for — taxes and death—
things we bought and worshiped
feelings of hope that faded to pain
will just be a memory on history's dark page.

Time will be past
these "things" will be gone
shackles all left by the way
For all that we own is this thing we call love
when God's gift of forever unfolds.

Then saints will recall
things must have mattered so much to us then
things we held tightly and dear
but the truth of the matter — its message so clear—
love is the only thing man takes from here...

in the light of eternity's dawn.
 

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Poem, copyright Katherine Walker, all rights reserved.

Photo, Ysabel de la Rosa

To learn more about Katherine's new book, click here.