Do Gentry

Who Dispenses Not Her Light Without Her Shadows*

With delicate brushes
and pure distillations of color
in little bowls before him,
the alchemist paints the universe
as a vast and intricate loom.

On the wall behind him,
the shadow of a hand
throws the invisible shuttle.

Patterns of light weave themselves
from threads of paint
thin as a sudden rain.

As he dozes before the crucible,
the blackness calcinating within
continues its slow journey toward perfection.

And when he sleeps at last,
the Work continues in his dreams.
See how gracefully they move,
like swans drifting across a lake
that casts no shadow.

*The title is taken from alchemist Thomas Vaughn's Aula lucis (House of light).