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Breath & Shadow

Summer 2019 - Vol. 16, Issue 3

"A Phoenix Has Risen"

written by

Jimmie R. Pennington

Molded of ancient earth this mystical birth.

 

Within faint flickers of fiery whispers;

 

Now crying chants -- "Arise - Arise."

 

Renewed eyes; staring, squinting through

 

The blue-gray mists of untouched dawn.

 

Waking; searching; where beyond lies the

 

unknown.

 

In that realm; tomorrow awaits the birth-

 

ling; this child of renewal.

 

The forgotten fire of yesterday; ignites

 

the dead cold embers of forlorn thought.

 

Then from within those cold embers renewed;

 

A blaze --- A phoenix has risen

 

from the ashes of oppression, refusing

 

to yield to greed and obsession.

 

Gallant; this new birth at one with new

 

self; risen above now, beyond torrid past.

 

Stately creature spreads new found wings,

 

and sings the melody of freedoms song,

 

Lost for so long. With birth of new day

 

Painful yesterday slithers away, and

 

Gentle winged birth of freedom rises;

 

Rises to open sky, to fly.

 

On crest of summer breeze;

 

Life below slows to ease.

 

The words of the procrastinators

 

Fall to deaf ears, where now flow silent

 

tears. Thought; that gentle thought,

 

Valiantly has fought; and upon

 

Winged steed has conquered the oppressor.

 

Now weary days of weighted past

 

lie dead at last, and this phoenix

 

born anew; has risen beyond oppression.

 

Beyond indecision, from belief, from

 

thought, from sweet Mother Earth

 

comes now; sweet rebirth.

(Previously published in Literary Orphans online magazine, 2013)

Jimmie Pennington is a writer and self-taught artist from Kentucky.

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