To find the Light
and be in it awhile
I had to cast the shadow you were in.
Was it warm? (Your eyes kept glowing—
It was warm!)
Now you are there and I am here.
If light is love and love is God
then God is far away.
The shadow has been cast back on myself.
But I can close my eyes from time to time
and cancel out the shadow. Can you close
yours too? And do you feel the warmth from here?
When next we see each other, we
shall close our eyes together and erase
the shadows, if you’d like, if we can.
Till then, stay warm, and I shall keep in back
an ember which though coated in thick black
will only need the gentlest cheeky puff
for your face,
your eyes,
your light
to shine again—
James B. Nicola is the author of six collections of poetry, the latest being Fires of Heaven: Poems of Faith and Sense. His decades of working in the theater culminated in the nonfiction book Playing the Audience: The Practical Guide to Live Performance, which won a Choice award.
