Author and poet Cynthia Sharp has submitted two of her newest poems, “The Temple of Trees” and “In an Evergreen Altar” written to Jilly Watson’s painting Sanctuary (see below) for a book they are collaborating on in future. They make their debut here in The Miramichi Reader.
The Temple of Trees
Tangerine path opens
to the universe,
empyrean resin made strong.
Veins flow,
leaves fall.
I feel your gentle curves,
embrace entropy,
spread into earth,
the birth canal
we imagine death to be.
Inside the trunk
palpable palms unveil
a center of light,
the paradox inside trees,
a golden tunnel to the core,
the moon a carriage,
a whole earth in its cradle,
an embryo to another world,
an inverse cocoon
spiralling beyond
the descent back.
In an Evergreen Altar
Shadows won’t catch you
if you beam toward radiance.
Stay focussed and strong
in the saffron night,
no longer manipulated
by misguided obligation
to enter any darkness
not meant for you.
Inhale the auspicious candescence
infused with the scent of cedar,
a candle along a pomelo path
to your inner child.
Let the quicksand of depression
dissolve on its own.
Stream along starlit stones in forest soil,
through blood vessel rivulets
to dissolution,
the return to nothing
reborn in light,
arteries pulsating,
universe creating,
destination in sight.
Flow to the heart,
the inner transcendence of trees,
a wrapped mummy
in womb time bliss
to eternity.
Cynthia Sharp holds an MFA in creative writing and an Honours BA in English literature and is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets, as well as The Writers’ Union of Canada. She was the WIN Vancouver 2022 Poet Laureate, one of the judges for the 2020 Pandora's Collective International Poetry Contest and the City of Richmond, British Columbia’s, 2019 Writer in Residence. Her poetry, reviews and creative nonfiction have been published and broadcast internationally in journals such as CV2, Prism, Haiku Journal, The Pitkin Review and untethered, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology. Her work is featured regularly in classrooms in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Cynthia is the author of Ordinary Light, Rainforest in Russet and The Light Bearers in the Sand Dollar Graviton, as well as the editor of Poetic Portions, a collection of Canadian poems and recipes honouring Earth Day, all available in bookstores and libraries throughout the world. She resides on Coast Salish land, inspired by the beauty of west coast nature.
