Does your brilliance know how you help me grow?
You brighten dim study and leisure space,
dark bedroom of night, gracious, loving glow
turning barren cold to warm holy place
for greeting greatest souls of earth. Shakespeare
holds court while William James chants of faith turned
to action. Akhmatova hosts small sphere
of clear voices old as Homer, modern
as Charlie Smith, earthy as Frost. Lowell
whispers his confession to Sexton as
they sip wry whiskey. It may not go well,
or it may. Still we let them raise a glass
to the Muse, her slender frame now in sight,
fiery eyes exploding within your light.
Roger Armbrust
July 2, 2009
