The Shadow & The Light

I wrote the following poems in my University Creative Writing class. The first two emerged from a deeply rhythmic place within me, where I intentionally stripped away every unnecessary word. I wanted each line to feel spare, deliberate, and essential.

I am naturally a person of many words, so this was an experiment in restraint. After reading my work, my professor shared that he felt the poem might be stronger with more language, more expansion, more room to breathe.

What I carried with me from that feedback is this: there is nothing wrong with my wordiness. Sometimes abundance creates context. Sometimes it offers warmth. Sometimes it allows a poem to unfold instead of simply arrive.

So I will continue to be slightly long-winded when it feels true to me.

Below, I have included the original version of ‘The Shadow & The Light’, along with the newer, more expansive rendition.

I would love to know which one resonates more with you. Let me know in the comment section below.

The Shadow

Mind swirls
Anger hurls
Heart ache
Regret takes
Dreams far
Painful scar
Candles fade
Hidden shade
Sleepless night
Senseless fright
Memories strangle
Thoughts entangle
Always seek
Never found
Mind unsound
Breath bated
Edges serrated
Out of sight
Darkest night

The Light

Dawn Arrives
Endless skies
Thoughts sound
Love surrounds
Heart unburdened
Strength certain
Trusted path
Forgiven past
Candle bright
Lovely sight
Dissipated darkness
Monsters harmless
Histories glow
Seeds sew
Always seek
Often found
Mind sound
Breathe deep
Trusted leap

The New Shadow

Trapped in a dreamless state,
wedged between the here and now and my true fate.
A tangled shadow of the self I wish to be.
Shattered glass rattles the parts left broken,
the shadow inside is so well-spoken.

A desire to tell the truth,
to clear away the pieces that are loose.
How do I speak words that are true?
Words that resonate with the deepest parts of me and you?
The circumference of my heart aches from the echoes of pain and shame.
The shadow refuses to refrain from knocking me off my game.

To learn who I truly am,
I need to put these great books down.
In quoting them,
there is no fear of being wrong.
They are not my words,
they are not my song.

To go inside my deepest soul,
I see the shadow growing full.
To gently grasp the pencil in my hand and write the deepest words I can.

Set the love trapped inside of me free,
to write the words of my creativity.
Just at the moment of my darkest night.
I see a shadow growing bright,
it is acceptance of my plight.

At first,
it blinds me until I see that perfection is an illusion.
The shadow is an intrusion,
it is only a part of me.
It is not all of my complexity.
Dawn arrives just in time.

The New Light

As the dawn shines through the window of my soul,
it washes away the shadow’s toll.
In the light,
there is nowhere to hide,
it brings my deepest thoughts alive.

As my river meets my ocean,
I let my inner voice write down the recipe to my personal devotion.
The oceans of possibility start flowing out of the deepest parts of me.
I want to live in expansion,
to have my soul be a mansion.

To stop contracting and acting,
to stretch out wide and show my deep inside.
I will lean into my intuition,
as it has always led me to a joyful transition.

To bask in the warm sun rays,
to close my eyes and cherish these days.
To not wish this life away.

The weighted blanket of depression,
can no longer hold me back from my truest expression.
It has been replaced with a luminous grace draped lightly over my shoulders.
Much lighter than the boulders.

Let my truth be expressed in vulnerability.
In the light,
it is more than me that I can see,
it is all of humanity.

I spread my arms out wide and run with full abandon towards my precipice.
I close my eyes and dive into the endless possibilities.
Grateful for the shadow and the light.