swifts  &  s l o w s · a quarterly of crisscrossings

late night shadows
Sharon Lopez Mooney

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Alchemy of a life


Exiled from Jerusalem, his belongings stamped illegal, a few
paintings saved in the downdraft as he fled, his poems became
dust in the left behind. He never found his poet’s voice on pieces
of western paper, but found me, a northern California poet, who
he caught in his web of magical storytelling. We, he and I,
became one heart in many achingly delicate, late night shadows
of his home in a warehouse’s echo — his refuge hidden off a dim
industrial side-street of an urban landscape.

He composed a symphony of tales that had not been erased,
etudes of memory that caressed his heart each rising sun, and
were extinguished again each night by the scars of those who
could still reach across the decades. This Desert Poet whispered
stories so I could be his pen, the song he would never sing, and
share his journey in the sunshine and neon city where finally he
release into death.

His heart cries as he tries to paint his way home

He is frozen here, painting a chaos of color,
red burns into fire recoloring the strength
of his patron’s will, she hopes to inspire him
her polished pewter shoulders the reason he is still alive.

He, a Jerusalem firebrand poet, is drowning in help
of wealthy western sponsors, their passions fueled his flight,
they chose this unbroken country of liberty and freedom
recklessly wasted in this youngster of a nation,

he lays thick warrior red over his canvas,
but their adulation spreads as stain in all directions,
falsely ennobling his endless journey
from his beloved city, his Jerusalem.

Maybe, maybe, when the paint is dry,
the aching will release him and his children,
to return to plant their bare feet on the land
of their birth, his mother and lover, their Jerusalem.

Maybe finally, this palette of a new neon life,
gifted him in spite of his constant yearning to go back,
will offer passage home to the land of their blood,
but their hope pushes against forbidden return.

You can read more of Sharon Lopez Mooney’s poetry
in CANTATA for a desert poet just released from
ARTEIDOLIA PRESS →

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Sharon Lopez Mooney (1942-2024), poet and retired Interfaith End of Life Chaplain, received a California Arts Council Grant for a rural poetry series; was a “Best of the Net” nominee, a “Peseroff Prize” finalist, and received two other publisher’s honors “Editor’s Choice” & “Elite Poet”. Mooney’s poems are published in national & international publications like, “Ginosko, California Quarterly, Galway Review, Tipton Poetry, Kennings Literary Journal, Glassworks, Kennings Review, Visible Magazine, Breakwater Review, NewVerse” and others.  Mooney also hosted the Burlington Writers Group for Poetry on alternate Thursday evenings, always showing compassion and support for those participating.