Pier Lights Poem by Robert Sheridan

Wayfarer fishers seek the pier lights
As one seeks shadowy recollections
Flickering dreams maintained in the night
Like fish in the water – weave in & out of sorrow.

The pier lights creek down on the water’s surface
Imploring the sea to except its brightness
Dancing on the surface with little rest in-between
Inconveniencing the fish requiring a passage of the invisible.

Under the pier, the darkness staves off the lights
Impaling its beams one by one – dark waters continue to float
It dictates & perceives, resembling the depth of the abyss
Both difficult to understand, both difficult to measure.

But, yet, the pier lights continue to spread, continue to braid
Interweaving light like strands of hair
Binding together to cloak a fragment of the seawater’s surface
Illuminates like a flame drawn to a thousand matches.

Then comes the dawn continually journeying
Becoming as clear as one’s consciousness or emotions
First as a whisper on the horizon
It causes the pier lights to grieve & to yearn.

Without warning, without expectation
The pier lights become less intense & fade away
They bow to the dawn and disappear
Reappearing at dusk in an un-darkened cape as a shadowy figure.

'2007'