Poem: It takes the light

‘Writing this poem was, for me, a spiritual experience in itself, certainly Quaker. However, the line “I like to see the Sufi dancing in the morning light” is a memory of a special moment from years ago. I was in Istanbul and saw this whirling circle dance complementing the dawn sunlight.’

The martyrs bother me the most,

death and consequences defused in glory.

Then come the mighty claps of thunder,

religious ragtime and the call to prayer.

Smoldering bonfires of Lebanon

darker than the dark, they keep the hound dogs 

barking, awakening the night 

with tiny bouncing terriers jabbing at banshees 

speed-chatting the angels.