#PoetryBreak: Farolitos

Contemplative (M.A. Reilly)

Farolitos

  - by Arthur Sze

    (from The New Yorker)

We pour sand into brown lunch bags, then place

            a votive candle

inside each; at night, lined along the driveway,

            the flickering lights

form a spirit way, but what spirit? what way?

            We sight the flames

and, swaying within, know the future's fathomless;

            we grieve, yearn, joy,

pinpoints in a greater darkness, and spy sunlight

            brighter craters

on a half-lit moon; in this life, you may try, try

            to light a match, fail,

fail again and again; yet, letting go, you strike

            a tip one more time

when it burst into flame--        now the flames

            are lights in bags again,

and we glimpse the willow tips clutch at a lunar

            promise of spring.