xxx. Signs and Wonders - Light

Light:

Old English leht, earlier leoht, from Western Germanic.

Late Afternoon Light, Hahndorf

after paintings by Hans HEYSEN (1915)

This day conflicts with tomorrow:

an afternoon that crowds with time’s derision.

Golden, old - a tapestry of the slow

stitched day of sun and dust. It can’t go on.

In fact all of this will pass. The kind of mute

procession that flags a dynasty down-

not starts another. Shadows from the giant

thrown gums fly south: lie now forgotten

as their more solid counterparts - prey

to axe and saw. The horses shambling north

will not return: yoked to the past they

pull what’s left of his beleaguered path

and industry into oblivion.

Beyond the hour, war daubs the canvas in.

Jeff Guess

Reflection:

A Sufi master once set himself up at a crossroads. He lit a very bright lamp and, a distance away, a candle. Then he sat by the candle and read his book. People watching him were confused. Why didn’t he read by the bright light? The bright lamp, he explained, attracted all the moths, leaving him to read in peace.

Reading: St. John 9: 5

‘. . . I am the light of the world.’ NIV

Prayer:

Jesus bids us shine

With a pure, clear light,

Like a little candle

Burning in the night.

In this world of darkness

So let us shine—

You in your small corner,

And I in mine.

Jesus bids us shine,