Out of the Shadow

Shadows of mountains

guard the thin ground of this life.

 

The high dry canyons stretch

out among seamless dunes

in the magic Western plains.

 

Footprints in leaf rot,

the sweet smell of season’s end

in cool shadowed green.

 

The beauty of light

is cupped in silence

in cactus flowers,

ghost flowers,

in the trickling mirror

of freshwater pools.

 

Can we go on from here?

Have we the power

to lift the balm of shadow

for the silence of light?