Catching Fireflies Poem by Gabrielle Ciarann Roniyah Baer

Catching fireflies feels
like catching poems,
Or should I say that
The other way around?

Catching fireflies
When they dart into view
Is easier than it should be,
Is harder than it sounds.

They glow an instant,
maybe two
In our eyes, in our minds, in our hearts,
flickering at the limits of our sight,
At the far ends of our reach.

We, childishly, seek to capture
Their light, their life,
Their short-lived beauty
In the clear jars of our imaginings.

They are ephemeral things,
Never meant to be seized
Yet many a summer’s night,
We spend, trying to hold
Their fragile, gorgeous lights.

And much of fall and winter’s dark,
Likewise we make-shift,
Re-collecting their shimmering gifts
Of light, of beauty, and of life.


written 08/19/02