Shadows

The shadows are lengthening.
Soon night will descend.
and with unwanted haste
this blaze of light will end.

The shadows are lengthening,
old friends no longer here.
I say goodbye in resignation
more than in sad tears.

The shadows are lengthening.
There's hatred in the air,
the violent, base and wicked
lusting for power everywhere.

The shadows are lengthening.
Old certainties seem to fade.
Is it that sight is improving
or diminishing with age?

But with the growing shadows
there is perfume in the air
and in the developing darkness
there is beauty everywhere.

Clouds are now backlit,
there is glory in the sky,
a beauty made more intense
because it cannot abide.

Much is not diminished
but in the shadow glows.
Thus the gift and joy of love
lengthening shadow grows.

Lengthening shadows highlight
one walking long ago,
the Son of Man, the Nazarene,
bathed in deep, bright glow

and every morning I see enacted
a joyously wonderful sight,
thick darkness being defeated
by morning's rising light.