First-Place Winner, Poetry Contest 2013

Levi Andrew Noe is awarded first place for his poem "To Light the Way." Levi Andrew Noe hails from Denver, Colorado. He is a writer, a teacher, a yoga practitioner and instructor, a maker of botanical products, a world traveler, and a seeker of realness in all its forms. Levi is in the process of self-publishing his first book, a children's picture book titled One Day as a Raven (read more about his book here).

If Levi were trapped on a desert island and could have only one book to read, he would have a very hard time deciding between a collection of poetry from either Rumi or Hafiz.

 

To Light the Way

            by Levi Noe

I imagine a time

when the spark

you truly are

finally catches fire

through all the damp and mildew

and sets your dead-wood self

ablaze.

 

I am supposing you will say

something like “yeeouch!”

and possibly you may

be desperate enough

to stop, drop, and roll,

or run for the nearest

body of water.

 

But then

after several minutes

of mortified lunacy

you will find yourself

unscathed,

covered in dirt

and/or

dripping wet

laughing hysterically,

not caring how insane

the crowds gathering around

might think you are,

not worrying

whether or not

someone has called the police.

 

I imagine you will stop laughing then

and begin to weep

for all the illusions

of skin

and bone

and sinew

and thought

that now blow somewhere

across the midwest as fertile ash.

All of that illusion

that you once identified with,

and claimed as yourself

gone, gone, gone.

 

And once the madness

and mourning pass

I suppose you will float away

or choose to stay here as a naked,

penniless, homeless wanderer

with no aim, no fear, and no motive

but to love and to burn like a candle

to light the way.