Candlemas Day Poem by Bernard Kennedy

Light glow and glowing,
like the forest moon and sun up,
natural light then candle is over.
Except if night comes down on storm night,
and candle light,
though sign or birthday or remembering.

Around the universe a glowing, with joy,
not seething, but alight with souls'
anticipation, and light in Spring,
hopes realization after winter,
then hiding by the edge of night,
like a blanket on the cold heart of winter,
glowing, not glowering,
on the edge of faith.

But always, deep down in anticipation, the
light is like a pilot, waiting to catch,
fanned, as cinders to a bellows does. Or students
watching school clock, or weary waiting
to retire, but yet, but yet,
the hinted intuitive glowing light is real,
'on Candlemas Day, throw candlestick away'.

The earth awakens, the stone ready for rolling back
from winters cave.
And Christ awakens the seed to flowering.