Issue Forty-Four - Summer 2024

Without Dark, Would We See the Light?

By Linda Conroy

I think of lilies, flowers of the earth,
still fragrant, winsome,

each sight a bead in the chain of my belief,
though often times I toil

and spin and ponder, prune,
prevaricate in want and greed and guilt.

Who knows what might happen soon,
a mystery awkward as the blueprint

of a storm. When trees turn grey
in rain’s downpour, we might try to run,

do something careless, desperate,
but as sun casts shafts across the farthest hill

we’ll stand and wait and watch,
joined by the soul to all of this, and that.

Copyright 2024 Conroy

Linda Conroy , SHARK Reef Poetry Co-editor, retired from a long career as a Child Protective Services worker, manager, meeting facilitator and advocate for people with unique needs; she knew she needed to write about the complicated and gratifying human behaviors she had been privileged to witness, as well as the impact of the natural world and the changing times. Initially, she wrote fiction and creative non-fiction, but poetry quickly became her favorite genre. She continues to host and facilitate writing groups at Village Books in Bellingham, WA, and enjoys spending time with writer friends. She is a four–time Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest winner and has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Her poetry has recently appeared in many journals and anthologies and at local community events. She is the author of two poetry collections, Ordinary Signs, and Familiar Sky. 

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