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.