I Lit a Candle for You at Mass, Only I Didn't - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

I Lit a Candle for You - Only I Didn’t



Before the Mass I went to light for you
A Penny Candle (it’s a Looney now)
And with it send a prayer up through the air
Throughout the liturgy, into the night

But, oh, how sad that it could not be so
For all the little paper matches were damp
And all I have to offer you today
Are heaps of cardboard strips in a little tray

But even so: within my heart, you know
There is for you forever a votive glow


(Looney - a Canadian dollar, but of course one needn’t put in a coin at all)

Votive Candles

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

Votive Candles

 

For Abbie and ‘Zander

 

They haven’t been penny candles for ever so long

Because there aren’t any pennies anymore

Everyone simply calls them votives now

Those old-church, wax-stained banks of little flames

In silence flickering in the shadows grey

There launching, limning prayers into the world

Small acts of firm defiance against the night -

And you are votives too, small gifts of light

Incarnate prayers aglow within the hearts

Of those forever blessed in knowing you.