Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Streetlamp


A passing shadow on an alley wall
Silent tread of barefoot feet
Midnight wanderer skirts the fall
Of a pool of light on a lonely street

No memory lingers to show the way
To whisper the tale of this passerby
Who left no trace but a shadow to play
Beneath the quiet seething sky

7 comments:

Ben Schnell said...

Chris and I really love this one.

Alyssa said...

So when one half of a poem is written, and then another half almost two years later, what kind of date am I supposed to put on the thing?

Robby Van Arsdale said...

That actually adds a LOT to the poem that you wrote the second half so much later.
Oh, I shouldn't assume you wrote the second half second. Did you?

In any case, I'm going to assume you wrote about the loss of memory after you forgot the poem. Because I struggle with poetry usually and that fact (be it fact or fancy) adds a lot of underlying yesness to the poem.

Done babbling now.

Alyssa said...

Yep, second half came later--all in good order! It's one of my favorites now.

Actually, though, I didn't forget the poem. I think I can recite all of them, even now. And there are a lot of them.

You said babbling. Twice, actually. So I looked up "brook" in Irish, and it's sruth which is lovely, but the German definition is definitely Leistungsgruppe. What in the blue blazes? So you're walking by a musical trickle of a stream, and you say, "What an enchanting little Leistungsgruppe." I think not! Completely ruins it. Now who's babbling?

Robby Van Arsdale said...

German is a pretty language, not in its sounds, but in what it says.

A passage of scripture I can't remember says "Don't forsake me" in English, but says "Don't let me out of your hand" in German. It's more intimate.

And the way they say things makes me happy, too. Das gefällt mir. That pleases me. Ich falle in deine Arme. I fall in your arms.

Now that I'm off-topic: brook. Yes.

anelles47 said...

I think this is brillig. :-)

Alyssa said...

Thanks. :)