The Poetry of Joan Cavanagh Manning

From the darkness of the times,
the chill of fear, the haze of hope
and the sigh of faith,
heaven had turned off all the stars but one.
A single point of special light
caught a lonely eye.
A nova struck in the deep French night,
so brightly fierce and beautiful,
yet so constant as the sun,
that it took sixty years to fade.

I watch you as you rip and tear
at sandy shore and sunlit glare.
You, largest monster of them all,
who gathers those who swim and crawl
to sate your belly’s daily fare.

Your graceful motions, dear La Mer,
and blue and greenish silvers rare,
all beckon me to hear your call.
I watch you,

but wonder as I sit and stare,
if I would someday ever dare
to have the courage and the gall
to visit your enchanted hall
and hide inside a sea shell where
I’d watch you,

A cosmic beauty she would be,
whirling in a cosmic sea,
rife with sparkling, starry eyes
and clouds of hair to dramatize
a world which only she can see.

Evening’s depth of darkest night,
black velvet wrapping starry light,
draped on shoulders moist with dew
still retaining sunset’s hue,
viewing fields of malachite.

The lady turns a willing ear
to music of the singing sphere,
changing as it always does,
always is and always was
the ever constant atmosphere.

Eos lifts her rosy ray,
purpling the night to day.
Black velvet falls around pale feet,
And diamonds scatter to complete
her mystery of every day.

JOAN became serious about poetry in the 1980s. She is a retired graphic artist and designer and now draws mostly in words. She has four grown children, four grown grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. She comments that it is great to have her poems on a forum such as this so that her family and friends will know that she doesn’t just watch TV all day and night.