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Issue 4
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Light and Shadow Make Up the House

  • by María Tabares
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  • October, 2017

poems about light and shadow

Light and Shadow Make Up the House

María Tabares

Without them it wouldn’t be what it is:
the open mouth of a wolf,
the apathetic look of an eye socket.
Light combusts,
cooking laughter and meals.
Shadow hides, in the closets, dresses
that, like handkerchiefs,
have been wiping off tears and fears for centuries.
Both light and shadow battle for life.
Amidst the combat, children fall into their arms
who are crying for the first time
and parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents,
dogs, cats, and various birds are all devoured.
The house, never still, creaks and shakes,
and with its walls like sails
moves through time.
We, inside the house, are just dust
that some wind blows along now and then,
and disappears.

 

Author María Tabares

Translated by María Clara Cadavid

 

  • María Tabares

María Tabares (Bogotá, Colombia, 1958) is a poet and prose writer, and a graduate of The School of Writers of Mexico (SOGEM). She has facilitated and participated in poetry, prose, dramaturgy, and script-writing workshops in Spain and Mexico. Her poems have been published in poetry magazines and in anthologies in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and France. Her published poetry books are: it falls, it rings, and it invades us (second-place winner at the poetry contest sponsored by the Rayo Museum and Ediciones Embalaje, Colombia, 2010); Light, Shadow Poems (first-place winner at the poetry contest sponsored by the Rayo Museum and Ediciones Embalaje, Colombia, 2011); The Megaphone Poets (Mexico, 2008); The Happy Turtle (La Dieresis Editorial, Mexico, 2012); and Álulas (El Angel Editor, Ecuador, 2014) Her short story "Five Minutes" won third place at the National Short Story Contest sponsored by Fundación La Cueva, Colombia, 2012. Her unpublished collection of poems The Shadow Ones won an honourable mention at the National Poetry Award of the city of Bogota, Colombia, 2013. ([email protected] https://Maria-tabares.blogspot.com)

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