Light

This is a poem that I wrote while I was serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Southern France around 1995. The poem is a sonnet in iambic pentameter. Each couplet is associated with a color of the rainbow. And there are both obvious and subtle allusions to scripture.

An apple stains the hands and wine the breath
betrayed by blood for pottage and a horse.
“Come home I love you, fire lights the course
and smoke the trials”: Stumble-blind from death.

A lemon orb abreast familiar earth
illuminates the flavor of remorse;
yet verdant hills in peace endow the force
of life restoring love, endear the dearth.

Emerging, once immersed in thunder-highs,
to pure reflection of the heavens and
be indigoed; the spirit testifies
that good becomes reality again.
The summit sets, the stars and moon defies;
at last remains the light without an end.

If you like these thoughts, you might also like “If You Could Hie to Kolo (Endless Version)” and “Practicing Atonement.”