Cast

Photo by Ahmet Sali on Unsplash

A Poem by Patty Seyburn

Late day, my ficus creates brocade of shadow.

Everywhere you step is made of shadow.

Peter Pan’s attached via Wendy’s thread and needle.

Black Forest tales portrayed a glade of shadow.

The darker side of personality – primitive, repressed.

Reading Jung, one might be afraid of shadow.

Erase feature and distinction, gray as gravel.

No wonder sciophobics are afraid of shadow.

The sun’s angle dictates a shadow’s length.

Errant grass juts out: blade of shadow.

Astronomy’s umbra, penumbra and antumbra.

Jupiter’s many moons and parade of shadow.

Catch yourself lengthened, stumped, erased.

Plurality of self: a serenade of shadow.

Patty Seyburn is a writer of poems and professor at California State University Long Beach. Her captivating style plunges readers into inquisitive passions and she views poetry as a vehicle to embrace the struggle of faith.

Read Threshold Delivery, Perfecta, Hilarity, Mechanical Cluster, or Diasporadic today.

Patty Seyburn has previously published five collections of poems: Threshold Delivery (Finishing Line Press, 2019); Perfecta (What Books Press, Glass Table Collective, 2014); Hilarity, (New Issues Press, 2009), Mechanical Cluster (Ohio State University Press, 2002) and Diasporadic (Helicon Nine Editions, 1998). She earned a BS and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University, an MFA in Poetry from University of California, Irvine, and a Ph.D. in Poetry and Literature from the University of Houston. She is a professor at California State University, Long Beach.