A Perspective on Stained Glass on a Rainy Day

Through Stained Glass Darkly


On a gloomy day
looking through
stained glass
darkly,
at darkness
still yields colour

Not the vibrant colours
of brilliant winter sunlight
blazing, streaming through
making your eyes ache

Not the rich warmth
of candle-lit church
reaching out into the
frosty midnight
beckoning, inviting
with strains of music
and curious holy words

On this rainy spring afternoon
I see not the light
given colour as it is
passing through the
stained glass
but I see the dull subtle
impurities that make the colours
and I see my own reflection
in the light rebounding
from fragments of coloured glass


Jim May, April 5, 2011