THE SHADOW - OF PAIN

LEGACY

To whom can I leave my rosewood pen
Soaked with starshine and with blood?
To whom can I will my veins of ink
That pulse with ebb and flood?
I’m circled by people who love
But few who understand
That I build this world of words and light
On a plain of pain and sand
Who will know the exquisite agony
Of questing the perfect word?
Of feeling your heart thrown open
When you know that your words are heard?
Who will feel the strength of the mountain top?
And the panicked black canyons between?
Who will taste that behind the laughter
Runs a river of tears unseen?
Who will know that being strung on a wire
Is a curse, but a blessing as well
For I do wring the power of words from pain
And mine beauty from the dark depths of hell
Who will walk the path my pain has cleared,
Though the way is still narrow and rough?
Who will know that deep in the darkest despair
The light and the words are enough?

~ For Laurence Estlin Walsh ~

©Edwina Peterson Cross
April 3, 2004