Water and Light

A friend of mine sent me this picture yesterday. I have reason to believe it is from the play "White Darkness." Nevertheless, it inspired me to write a poem from the perspective of the person in the picture. I'd prefer not to provide any further analysis, except the picture and the poem. I'll let the reader make any additional conclusions.



Water and Light
by Skinner G. Layne

I stand amidst the darkness, I stand without my sight,
But two forces now can save me: the Water and the Light.
I hang my head in silence, then the silence gives way to song,
And I bellow out a melody of sorrow and hope and wrong:

“Time has been so brutal, and life has brought me harm,
I long for life’s new purpose, to regain its wayward charm.
Oh God, and Angels above me, or Devils down below,
Someone please restore me, melt life’s wintry snow.
I have tangled with the torrent, of storms of bitter rain,
And lost, and found the struggle both meaningless and vain.”

My song, it echoes loudly, in the darkness and the night,
But ever louder in the background, roar the Water and the Light.
Though I feel the anguish, and though I feel depraved,
The Light relieves my misery, the Water my bleeding waived.
Rushing, almost deafening, the Waterfall resounds,
And the Sunlight pours behind it, breaking me from my bounds.

Though you cannot see my face, as it rises from my grief,
And what is happening inside of me, as I shatter all disbelief,
As I resolve to guide my own destiny, my future ever seize,
You will not see me falter, or fall upon my knees.
My earnest fixed intention, though wet and trodden down,
Is to plunge into the Water and my Defeated Notions drown.

For I’ve emerged from Death and Destitution,
From Hopelessness and Fright.
I have found my Restitution—
In the Water and the Light.