“Light,” Ensign, July 1988, 64
Light
Honorable Mention
The lampglow
on my daughter’s blonde hair
forms a halo
where she reads across the table,
the grain of oakwood between us
spiraled like galaxies and polished
to hold the light.
To hold the light
in these late hours we have our lamps
and books. She reads from a New Testament
and I from The Art of Rembrandt,
his paintings have drawn me
by their use of light and shadow:
Aristotle, Christ, Jacob Blessing
the Sons of Joseph—always
the light coming from the right,
“… man’s more sacred side.”
“Man’s more sacred side.”
Is that what we fail as we hurl ourselves
through life? In the portraits
of Rembrandt, the light honors
what is human and what is God-like,
accepting a place where they meet,
his later biblical paintings
all completed, uncommissioned,
out of his own need.
Out of our own need,
in this Sabbath between the closing leaves
of prayer plants and the pale
blossoming of sleep, we read,
my daughter and I,
finding again the Word …
Light.