Epiphany…..February 10.14…….(revisited 2.20.14)

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Epiphany/Redemption
(for Joan)

Those long-gifted with the radiance of joy—
we expect them to speak, but only words
sweetened with the countenance of hope.
How we love keeping souls
both good and bad, imprisoned:
stay there in the cell where you belong!
But we are called to steal the jailer’s keys
and set all prisoners free!

She herself is finally unchained, unafraid
and cares enough to follow her Lantern down
the dark stairs of love, among cool cellars
and tombs, and brings up the cold shadow-relics
carefully hidden there in buried rooms
and shows them to herself, to us at last —

—see, how the sunlight burns them
of spiders, time and dust, and turns them, glorious
white sea-birds soaring with windblown joy!

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–Quilla