Hope And Wishes...Candles Afloat Poem by David Whalen

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Candles affixed to small blocks of oak
Set afloat from streams rocky shore
Into the night, those small feeble lights
Drift away to be seen…no more

Upon those craft ride dreams and wishes
Hopes and ambitions… woes and emotions
Inscribed on parchment in uncertain script
Noble thoughts, prayers… and grand notions

Dreams set adrift on water deep and dark
Wishes washed away to windy far off bay
Hopes and aspirations, pleas and supplications
For end to hunger…and the start of better days

Long do they stand, on the rocky strand
In family groups, dressed all in tatters
Watching their dreams, carried off on the stream
As if that fading glow was all that mattered

Horsebread, light ale, goats milk and pottage
Coarse cloth, reed sandals, homes of daub and wattle
Twelve hour days in fields, then labor on master's cottage
Warmed only by fires of dung, of sheep and of cattle

Festival days in monastic keep
Bodies kept warm in fleece of sheep
Wishes and wants on water take wing
For on the morrow, (in sorrow) tribute's to be paid…
To the charitable church and the kindly king

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