looking glass in hand
circuits lenses silicon
reflect emptiness




a grey november
the trees shedding
bouquets of fire
every face seen
reminding of someone
i used to know
in the parking lot
sat in your car
it couldn’t be you
but i dreamt
and inside i wept
every face seen
reminding of someone
i used to know
a wrong turn taken
a map unexplored
in the end reflecting
an empty mirror
the face seen
reminding of someone
i used to know

shadow dancer

This poem is my entry for the Valentine’s Poetry Writer’s Challenge at The Writer’s Gallery website. It is a combination of personal experience and inspiration from the painting below that was painted by a dear friend of mine. If you would like to vote in the contest (each voter is entitled to 2 votes) you can do so at  Voting closes January 25.

shadow dancer

once walking through the woods
my mind dull and dreary
i paused to rest beside an oak
and lay my spirit weary

the orb of light hanging low
having all but given up
the endless sleep i sought
my soul had had enough

cradled by my spectral dreams
the skies began to darken
i wanted not for life
but only tombstone gardens

a song drifted through the trees
from slumber i was stirred
my nightmares interrupted
when a gypsy melody i heard

into the dusk a shadow danced
i stumbled quick to follow
enraptured by her mystery
in love i sought to wallow

to another place she led me
aurora trails in her wake
when over roses danced
my chest began to quake

the closer i gained the more i saw
the darkness she had drawn within
the ‘lectric hue i saw around
came from beneath her skin

at last she stopped within a glen
and let me sit beside her
she settled down beside a pool
the moon had made a mirror

in her eclipse i saw a beauty
unlike any ever seen
as if conspired by the fates
knew we were meant to be

tenderly she looked at me
a smile drawn upon my face
i looked at the reflecting pool
to see the couple that we’d make

what spell had i befallen
how could this sight be true
when looking in the mirror
the shadows there were two

shaken by this revelation
my heart began to skip
i woke beside the lonesome oak
covered in a mist

it couldn’t be a dream i wailed
this happiness i felt
a love like none i’d ever known
my spirit broken wept

a flicker in the darkness
that same electric blue
how could i love another
before myself i never knew