Images Divine and Secular (Ghazal)

Many names for life abandoned behind
myths ignite the darkest clouds from behind.

We’re designed to come apart in pieces, 
leaving trails of separate songs behind. 

Sometimes, there is a miracle that births 
a moth and leaves a broken hope behind. 

This valley teaches us by steps and falls 
and memories of all we’ve left behind. 

As shadows, we are moths to distant stars− 
our mercy to each other far behind. 

A Luna moth at night on window screen− 
a living dream by which I’m left behind.

David Anthony Sam lives in Virginia with his wife and life partner, Linda. His poetry has appeared in over 90 journals and his poem, “First and Last,” won the 2018 Rebecca Lard Award. Six of his collections are in print including Final Inventory (Prolific Press 2018), Finite to Fail: Poems after Dickinson (2016 Grand Prize winner of the GFT Press Chapbook Contest), and Dark Fathers (Kelsay Books 2019). He teaches creative writing at Germanna Community College, from where he retired as President in 2017 and serves as the Regional VP on the Board of the Virginia Poetry Society.