Double-edged Eternity

           Double-edged Eternity

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem 

He kissed and in the flowing stream on earth

A pool of halt and depth spread, still.  One branch

Stretched out across the mirror.  Silent worth

Implied a two-way meaning.  Hearts would blanch

If this were not the case.  An echo scene

Reversed all negativity.  Life surged

Above, below.  No negativity, no mean

Thing lasted.  Only holiness was urged.

It was as if a darkroom in the brook

Turned blackness, all of it, to utter white.

Before this heaven in itself mistook

The truth of living.  This displaced night’s blight.

  His kiss felt more like jungle fruits of pain

    That thrilled and disappeared, refusing stain.

Phillip Whidden