A Poem: Stronger

Light is stronger than dark
in how it can dispel it,
render it powerless.

The dark may put up its hands,
yell out ‘freeze’,
to no avail.
No hope against light
and her lanterns.

And how noiseless is she.

Let that be a word to the loud.
How light is not like water
rushing, tumbling in.
Or roaring with her full
body behind.

No, light comes in shrouded
in silence.
Enigmatic, even unobtrusive at first,
while at the same time
utterly confident.

Not with ego’s blustery ways,
but just a quiet assurance of
the facts.
The fact that light,
in the journeying of the sun,

the holding of a lantern
or lit candle,
the flick of a switch,
has a presence undeniably evident,
to which the dark cannot stand up.

And which we,
in how we each are seen,
naked even in her radiant beams,
shine in a light benign.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
May 2022