Tree by Night

On By dorahakIn Creative Work
photo ©dorahak

Tree by Night

Under cover of his darkness, I walk. And night walks with me.

As a child, I mistrusted him, hiding under the crisp linen covers, fearing transmogrification of dust bunnies under beds.

Much later, worries, imprisoned by the day’s demands, would spring free and trouble me to insomniac madness with night’s seeming acquiescence.

Now my life closes in on its last chapter. But I’ve learned night’s secrets. His is not the darkness of despair or torment, the deceit of his doppelganger. His the sweet nourishing knowledge of his Maker, the sustainer of souls looking to Him in childlike trust.

Lying on my bed, I look up in the street of sky. Night walks scattering poems of a Love more powerful than the stars that light the avenues of time and space.

Tree leaves shiver under streetlights. A thousand golden poems sing me to sleep.

Hallelujah.

Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV)
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world. 

Our challenge for Linda's dVerse Prosery prompt is to incorporate the following line from an E. E. Cummings poem in a 144-word piece of prose: "In the street of the sky night walks scattering poems."

42 thoughts on “Tree by Night”

  5. “… a Love more powerful than the stars that light the avenues of time and space.

    Tree leaves shiver under streetlights. A thousand golden poems sing me to sleep.

    Hallelujah.” What a beautiful finish.

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  13. You’ve looked at night from both sides now, to paraphrase the song. I suppose that if we did not pass through fear and difficulty, we would never recognize peace and calm for the gifts that they are.

    –Shay

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    1. There is that, and the fact that night has the imprint of its Maker, even as we do, and there is a confidence based on trust that darkness too can be a friend if perceived correctly and in light of the eternal and true.

      You made me think of one of my absolute fave renderings of “Both Sides” by Celtic singer Orla Fallon – sung in such a carefree and inappropriate way that it actually makes me smile rather than groan. Anyways . . .

      Can I say, I absolutely love this week’s word garden based on Stephen Crane!!! Can’t wait to give it a go. 🤗

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks for the reminder of one of Frost’s greatest poems, Björn. Hadn’t read it in quite a while, so luminescent. I wonder if perhaps in the back of his mind was this verse from Isaiah 53: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

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