The Last Lightkeeper

The Last Lightkeeper

A Poem by Sazaku
"

Prayers scratched in stone | etched by broken bones. | Ruined homes 'neath shallow loam | to build another throne.

"
Prayers scratched in stone
etched by broken bones.
Ruined homes 'neath shallow loam
to build another throne.
Heaving, heavy sigh
radiance departed from their eyes.
Tender souls calcified
beneath a mourning sky.

The last lightkeeper calls,
drifting softly through the halls
where so many others used to answer.
Gone to what lies after.

Calloused feet ponder quiet streets
through furrows stamped into concrete.
Gnarled cane laced in ivy fingers,
brandishing a bobbing orb on a ring.
Humming with an amber, glowing sheen
leaving behind a light that lingers.

Mist-slickened roads he'd navigate,
'til confronted by a rusting gate.
Beyond, the stones still call his name.
Silenced by the enduring flame.
Jagged lines of polished granite
final stop on an evanescent planet.
Speckled in bright, vernal blooms.
Draped in a hazy veil of gloom.

The fog engulfed him like a cloak
curling around the light like smoke.
Frostbite nipped his aged skin
though Spring had long since raised her head.
She seemed unwilling to observe the dead
sickened by their ancient sins.

He cared not for such isolation -
we all deserved light's preservation.
So the lightkeeper walked, row by row.
By his cane, they knew the glow
of the Sun in all its cleansing grace.
Freedom from the shadows they faced.

And when he reached the final grave
the keeper dug in the earth his stave.
Offering a silent prayer - may these souls persist -
before joining his friends within the mists.

© 2016 Sazaku


Author's Note

Sazaku
I started this a while ago, when I woke up with a single line burned into my waking mind. Today I scribbled out the rest of it after class, about half of it in a quick blur of ink and another half that took some careful navigation.

I'm still trying to mix it up, breathe some life into my work rather than drain it out with endless repetition. The result is... a murky success. I like it, I don't love it. I almost never love it, so I'll take it.

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Reviews

oooh i love this so much, thanks for entry into my gobsmack me competition, sorry its being judged so late today and thanks for being so understanding, good luck

Posted 5 Years Ago


I hope the visitors to this site realize this is 'professional' stuff, of a quality approaching those 'set-in-stone' poems we all read in school-- and like the truly worthwhile in any art form, it borders on the transcendent.

Posted 7 Years Ago


Sazaku

7 Years Ago

Man, I'm not really sure how to respond to this. As much as I would love that to be true someday, th.. read more
I like the story it tells, interesting concept -especially for a poem-, and great rhyming schemes. Reminds me a bit of Tennyson, or Noyes.

The last line of stanza three, would 'lingers,' be a better word?

Posted 7 Years Ago


Jacob Mahurien

7 Years Ago

Neither Tennyson or Noyes started as masters, either. We grow as writers, as did they.
Sazaku

7 Years Ago

A fair point. Sorry if I came off overly-dismissive, it's still hard for me to think of my poetry as.. read more
Jacob Mahurien

7 Years Ago

Oh no, you didn't at all. You came off as modest.

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Added on August 25, 2016
Last Updated on August 25, 2016

Author

Sazaku
Sazaku

KY



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