Shoulders Mantled with the Light

"Returning"

I was walking in a dark valley
And above me the tops of the hills
had caught the morning light.
I heard the light singing as it went out
among the grassblades and the leaves.
I waded upward through the shadow
until my head emerged,
my shoulders were mantled with the light,
and my whole body came up
out of the darkness, and stood
on the new shore of the day.
Where I had come was home,
for my own house stood white
where the dark river wore the earth.
The sheen of bounty was on the grass,
and the spring of the year had come.

~ Wendell Berry






Photo: Easter morning, the late 1950's. I'm in my Easter dress, white with yellow flowers and green leaves, and shoes. Next to me are two of my sisters, Christy and Jane.