I Am

Photo by averie woodard on Unsplash

I am made of prayers and secrets,

memories and stories told and retold.

I am made of rain and sun,

earth and phases of moonlight.

I am made of light and distant darkness,

galaxies and far off stars.

I am made of dust and chemistry,

particles and waves.

I am made of silence and no thing,

emptiness and yet…

I am

©2019 Joanne Young Elliott

Do Not Bury the Year too Soon

Photo by wenzlerdesign on pixabay

Do not bury the year too soon,

cover it with drifts of forgetting

never to see the light of day again.

It is not dead just yet. It breathes

life into me still with its sunrises

and sunsets attached to a year, a number

we have construed. Still it is and still I am

even though the sun now rises

lower and lower in the sky, and we rush

closer and closer to holy days and feasts.

Time becomes swift as the bird taking

the corner of the house so fast it

grazes the window, keeps flying undeterred

to its destination. It did not die,

will not be laid to rest this day.

©2019 Joanne Young Elliott