It gives us now a little guiding-light,
Like a thick midnight forest’s silver birches,
Or sculptured saints in empty darkened churches,
Or a black cavern’s sparkling stalactite.
It gives each path an unextinguishable light,
Like even unspoiled sand on stormy shores,
Or a dark deserted mansion’s marble floors,
Or a black cavern’s gleaming stalagmite.
No rays pierce through tonight from moon or star;
No lamps illuminate our graveled lane;
The glow is out in hearth and window-pane;
And at this hour you’d never see a car.
The only light is from the settled snow.
In this dark world it’s all the light we know.
Allen Ireland’s poetry has appeared in The Road Not Taken, The Lyric, Red Planet Magazine, WestWard Quarterly, and Tiny Seed Literary Journal. His first book of poems, Loners and Mothers, was published in 2017. His second book, A Sunray Lands in Syria, is scheduled to appear in June, 2021. Allen works for law enforcement administration in Helena, Montana.
Xenia Smith is a California native, currently working and creating out of Sacramento. She works full time printing for a local silk screen shop and helped establish Recluse Arts, an underground arts collective in downtown Sacramento. Xenia is a self taught artist who enjoys old school techniques such as film and silk screen and painting as well.
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