In All The Blackness Poem by jim hogg

I stood and watched them walk away
remembering the shapes and sparks
reflected in the well one night
their faces blank and rippling slow
what was it that we really saw
beneath that spread of silver lights
how real the thing we gazed upon
I didn't know a single star
in all the blackness, not a one
but oh, their light was in me then

and dark, how dark the darkness was
the depth that I was springing in
of that wild symphony of stars
the terror somewhere at my back
a little house that's disappeared
beneath their ruined memories
my mother's ashes, weeds and trees
and meagre stories that remain
my mumblings to these porous walls
I am my mouth and little else