Season of Revision
written by: Mark Scheel
This is our year-end of unease,
of colored lights on lamps of lonely hue,
of caroling voices with a tinge of ache
that turns the ear and hand
toward faint regret.
This is a season’s closing without closure,
without tradition’s zest for bow and bell,
without the leavened fullness of forgiving—
an overcast night
that chokes away the moon.
This is a time for retallies and revisions,
for distant ghosts behind the tinseled twigs,
for assessing and arranging what remains
to each and all of memory’s
lore and legend.
This is a bloodletting of the heart
that seeks the petal pink of yesterday,
that beats and throbs itself against the grief
for what was loved,
and lost as to a thief.
I was born on a farm in Kansas and attended Kansas University. After graduation I served overseas with the American Red Cross and later taught English at Emporia State University and was an info spec with the Johnson County Library. I belong to The Kansas Authors Club and The Writers Place and have served on the boards of directors with two literary magazines. I also was a prose editor for Kansas City Voices magazine. I'm now retired and write full time. My essays, short stories, poems and articles have appeared over a 40-year period in numerous periodicals. I blogged for several years on Scriggler and The Grant Journal and those posts were collected in a book. I have published six books to date representing every major genre. My work has won several literary awards and I'm represented by the Metamorphosis Literary Agency.
Latest posts by Mark Scheel (see all)
- Soldier’s Christmas - December 2, 2024
- The Inescapable Redundancy of War - April 17, 2024
- First Communion - July 12, 2023
