Sunbeam
Author's Note

This poem is based on a true incident, as my poems often are. I was home alone one morning, feeling kind of tired and depressed. My blinds were shut so I had no idea it was a bright sunny day. My living room was dark. I began to open the blinds when I noticed a sunbeam on the wall. I stared at it for a while and began to cheer up. Sunlight seems to have that effect on people.

Later, as I arrived at work, I saw the same thing again. Walking down the hall to our office I saw another sunbeam on the wall. It shone through the window, through the office, out the door and onto a wall which I'd never seen lit by sunlight since I've worked there. It gave the hallway a strange comforting quality that only sunlight can. These two images gave me the idea for this poem.

This is one of those open-to-interpretation pieces. There is obviously symbolism here, but not even I, the author, am sure what it's saying. How does it make you feel to see a sunbeam on the wall in a darkened room? Perhaps this poem speaks of humanity's quest for light in a dark world. Perhaps it speaks of God's light shining into an individual's darkened life in spite of efforts to shut Him out. Perhaps it symbolizes love, or any good thing that brightens your life. What ever meaning it has for you, I hope you will do as I did that morning in my living room. Throw your blinds open and welcome in the encouraging sun.

Kevin Ranville