In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Dawn
  • Pam Wynn (bio)

Then God said, “Let there be light”;

and there was light.

Genesis 1:3

Not every night sky is studded with stars. Away from the city —no street lamps to light the way— a car hurtles through black space nothing visible ahead, behind, to the left, or right.

We are taught to fear the dark, to resist slipping beneath the surface where dreams take hold. Being finds relief only when formless night is given form by the light of day.

In the beginning in a roiling dark fertile and fecund came the miracle of breath birthed amid trees of miraculous power, enchanted animals, and angels of fiery form.

In the beginning man and woman slept soundly in the night, walked boldly naked and unashamed in sunlight shining down on a vernal earth. [End Page 98]

Here in the middle in dark and in light I hold my breath. Years have passed like this.

It could be otherwise— breathing in and out in and out burrowing in to the dark, to that brief slip of time before the sun first hints at the shape of what is to come. To be at home, sleeping soundly, waking lightly— I can imagine this, I can.

for Jane Kenyon and Dr. Mark Weisberg [End Page 99]

Pam Wynn

Pamela S. Wynn teaches poetry and writing at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She is the author of Diamonds on the Back of a Snake (Laurel Poetry Collective, 2004), and she has received two Pushcart Prize nominations. “Dawn” is from her newest collection of poems, Luminous Thin Strands.pwynn@unitedseminary.edu

...

pdf

Share