Light Spill and Other Poems
by Alexis Ragan
LIGHT SPILL
Trail light out of your soul like water
does when it spills out of a pitcher,
trickling beauty anywhere and everywhere
it can get it hands on. Let it fall on unexpected
places, the zealous remnants elucidating the
surface of everything, like when Spring rain
decides to coat the leaves and all that’s green
in glistening dew. I knew there was a source
bright enough to blaze trails of jubilee
the moment my child eyes first blinked —
I saw it in my mother’s smile, the way
she let love shine out of her mouth with
words dripping with sun. Today I leave
pools of light behind me for people to dive
into when they are in a drought of dark.
There is never too much to spill.
SPRING IS FOR SECOND CHANCES
Take it all in.
Swallow the day whole like children
do candy, be in it so fully that the sun
will be bursting from the seams of your skin,
breathe in the air of today, all you can,
so that you too can float like a balloon who
knows its only destination is up.
You know what it feels to lack sunshine,
to be locked out of freedom,
or so you kept yourself from it —
You, glossed over by shade,
made no room to bloom,
walked a spring-less season once,
missed the arrival of renaissance
within the flowering crevices of
the “other side”— the news of it staying
lighter later didn’t reach you, so you
stayed waiting in the dark.
But spring is for second chances,
a time to come alive, to let everything
that buzzes and blooms grow around you,
like Roman statues in gardens that exist
for the living to wrap beautifully
around its very frame.
But you are more than mere marble,
and you do more than just exist.
You found, in your resurrection,
that there isn’t a moment to waste.
There isn’t a day unnamed.
So, take it all in!
Every spirited bit of it!
Make room, make room.
LIKE LAZARUS
“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” — John 11:4
I missed Spring willfully last year,
found myself stuck in a hopeless grave
like Lazarus, when he lost
life long before his time.
I have come back from the dead,
yes, and the longest slumber of my
existence has finally come to an end.
There was One who loved me,
One who knew how to resuscitate
those that felt the sting of death
press them into their premature beds —
“Life and life abundantly!”
I weep loudly, and shake off the robes
of my ghost-self to see just what
I had been dreaming about when
I was in that dark, unforgiving cave. Light,
and light abundantly spilling out of
my resurrected soul, because of Christ,
I walk out, eternally whole.
ALEXIS RAGAN
Alexis Ragan is a creative writer and teacher, convinced that art serves as a powerful window of worship that helps lead humanity back to God’s heart. As a seasoned ESL instructor who is passionate about global missions, she presently blends her love for writing and teaching for the sake of the Great Commission. She created the literary journal, Vessels of Light, to be a virtual lighthouse and literary journal where life in the light of the Lord is illuminated in scripture and reflected throughout creative literature, namely through poetry at www.AlexisRagan.com. Published in places such as Calla Press, Alabaster Co, and Christianity Today, she is an assistant editor for Ekstasis Magazine and joyfully anticipates returning to California State University Long Beach to pursue an MFA in Poetry this coming Fall.
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