In that hour before the doors of home
Lock down for the night,
In that last hour before the doors close
Against the cold of night,
In the hour before
A child’s freedom to wander ends for the
day,
In the hour before dinner—
A frightened child slips quietly from the
house
And rides toward the beach.
High above the sands along the bluff,
She rides down to the end of the track
And back to its beginning—
Riding until it is safe again to go home
To be locked away from the open sky.
Listen to the waves
Listen to the air whistling at your ear
Listen to the seagull cries
Hear the grass grow
Look at the far horizon
Look at the largeness of the sea
Look at the bigness of the sky
Feel the distance they have traveled and
touch
Listen to the waves
Taste the sky
Trust the wind to carry away
All that must not return
To be locked in with family
In a home closed in for the hours of
night
Trust the wind to blow clean and fresh
Through a heart choked by thorns
Hear the ocean sing of far away shores
Taste the seasoning of distance in the
air
See as the sky sees
Feel the wild freedom of the wind
Back and forth along the bluff
The child rides in the hour before
Night locks down and around.
Back and forth above the sea
She flies with the wind
And dwells where distance dwells
Till windswept and free again,
She turns toward home.
#ChildhoodDepression #SeaPoetry #MeditationPoem #Self-Healing
Author’s Notes
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“DAWN” was found among the author’s papers.
REFRACTIONS—a poem by Robert Roxby
“OUR FLAG” first appeared in the author’s poetry collection, Reflections on a Lifetime. It appears in honor of June 14, Flag Day. It is unclear exactly who might be the Uncle John in the poem, perhaps simply a use of poetic license.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION” is a poem written in reaction to the CV19 pandemic.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR JUNE 2021
THE WIND
A multi-faceted Nature’s rite
In Spring can be zephyr
Soft and sweet
As bird’s flight
Or on an Autumn day
Exhilarating delight
Yet in Winter
A chilling, freezing
Storm’s cruel bite
But then, sometimes
in Summer slumber
the wind becomes a mysterious
whisper in the silence
of the night.
#NaturePoetry
IN THE HOUR BEFORE NIGHT
In that hour before the doors of home
Lock down for the night,
In that last hour before the doors close
Against the cold of night,
In the hour before
A child’s freedom to wander ends for the
day,
In the hour before dinner—
A frightened child slips quietly from the
house
And rides toward the beach.
High above the sands along the bluff,
She rides down to the end of the track
And back to its beginning—
Riding until it is safe again to go home
To be locked away from the open sky.
Listen to the waves
Listen to the air whistling at your ear
Listen to the seagull cries
Hear the grass grow
Look at the far horizon
Look at the largeness of the sea
Look at the bigness of the sky
Feel the distance they have traveled and
touch
Listen to the waves
Taste the sky
Trust the wind to carry away
All that must not return
To be locked in with family
In a home closed in for the hours of
night
Trust the wind to blow clean and fresh
Through a heart choked by thorns
Hear the ocean sing of far away shores
Taste the seasoning of distance in the
air
See as the sky sees
Feel the wild freedom of the wind
Back and forth along the bluff
The child rides in the hour before
Night locks down and around.
Back and forth above the sea
She flies with the wind
And dwells where distance dwells
Till windswept and free again,
She turns toward home.
#ChildhoodDepression #SeaPoetry #MeditationPoem #Self-Healing
FLAG
It was old.
It was used,
A hand-me-down.
Chrome handlebars
Goose-bumped with rust,
The body once blue
With racing stripes
Of red and white
Now sunburned
Into shades of brown.
In secret
I named it Flag
For its service
Long and hard.
Faster than I
Could walk
Or skate,
It took me
Where I needed to go.
Together we rode
To no place
While I sang
Angry or sad
Songs I wanted
No one to hear
Songs that said
What I could not
Dared not.
When I left home,
Flag was handed down
Once more.
#BicycleLore
Author’s Notes
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“THE WIND” was found among the author’s papers.
REFRACTIONS— a memoir poem by Kathleen Roxby
“IN THE HOUR BEFORE NIGHT” first appeared in Chameleon Woman in 2000. It is a companion poem to “FLAG” which also appears this week. See note below.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“FLAG” was first published in The Bubble, 2012. It was written about the poet’s first adult size bicycle, cruiser style with sheepskin seat cover because the original fabric had been worn away. It had formerly belonged to her older cousin. This bike saw her through to her 16th birthday when she received a new 3-speed because she had joined a biking club in high school. “Flag”, the bike, features in another of her poems, “In the Hour Before Dark” which describes how she coped with teenage depression (see above).
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR JUNE 2021
A Haiku
Stars all bright above
Clouds floating in unison
Night falls quietly
#NaturePoetry