A Poem: Shine

I got up with the birds today.

The heavy cloak that covered me as I slept,
tucked its edges around me
that for a moment I could not breathe,

could not sense the light
for the dark,
lifted with the birds.

The birds whose morning song
tore the curtain
and opened the tomb,

as though the light had always
been waiting in the wings.

I got up with the birds today

who recalled to me,
how darkness might threaten
to veil our faith and joy

but that song is a tonic for our pains
and griefs,
and fears that threaten with their dark edge,

are simply covers that we remove
as we rise and stand,
and claim the light of day,

to chase away
the vestiges of the night.

I got up with the birds today.

And took with relief a big expansive breath
as I remembered,
how light shines from without and within.

That the dawn that rises in the east before my eyes,
ascends also in my heart
to burst at its seams.

Like the sun that will soon
crest the clouds to flood the sky,
I am reminded to shine from inside out,

and sing, as though I’d always had a song
ready like the birds,

to greet the day.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
November 2018