Luminaria

Regine Ebner

Insect in amber
from eons of forest
Paleozoic ember
of firelight

I can hold your carbon sunbeam
and seize a millennium
while I let go of the past

Humble luminaria
with a fragment of life

diminutive time-traveler
saving the past for later

The Science

‘Luminaria’ reflects upon the rhythms of time itself, the lost time of the past regained and revisited in the amber fossil and life in present time which cannot be saved and recedes quickly into the past.  As students of science, we can literally gaze into lost eras by holding fossils in our hands.  But as present-day humans, we must also let go of our past lives and move on, affirming life’s rhythms, back and forth in time, past to present and present to past.

The Poet

Regine is a Montessori teacher at a school she founded in Tucson, Arizona. She co-authored a play, Minor Details, which was performed in Tucson and she has a chapter in the book, Reimagining Shakespeare for Children, by Naomi Miller, among other writings. Most recently, her poetry has been accepted for publication by Sledgehammer Lit and Chasing Shadows. Regine enjoys teaching poetry, science, and history, among other subjects. 

Next poem: Natural Rhythms by Martin Knox