Beacon

I'll be waiting by the lighthouse
perched upon the hanging cliff
I hope the light guides you safely
to where I overlook the seas
swirling hungrily far below
for me to trip and slip and fall

I'll be waiting by the lighthouse
where the moon is always outshone
I hope you follow its beacon
when you join me in the darkness
that we'll forever call our home

I'll be waiting by the lighthouse
crooked from its years of service
I hope it stands 'till you arrive
to ensure you don't lose you way

I'll be waiting by the lighthouse
towering above the ocean
I hope I won't be waiting long

I'll be waiting by the lighthouse
the one to lead you to the dim

I'll wait until the light's burned out

Author's Note

I'm not sure if I managed to convey what I was trying to (and I won't say what that was, because that defeats the point of the poem conveying anything to the reader :p )
Please let me know if it worked! :)

Reviews

[AliciaB]

Hmm... does the idea of "until the light's burned out" have anything to do with the way the length of each stanza dwindles until the last one is a single line? I haven't read any of the other reviews on this poem yet, so if I figured it out on my own... hooray for me! :) But getting back to what's important... I really like the structure of this poem, and the repetition of "I'll be waiting by the lighthouse" - it gives a sense of the speaker of the poem being here every day without fail, always looking over the same view, waiting for a very long time. And I'm just now noticing the lines "when you join me in the darkness / that we'll forever call our home"... Could this poem be a metaphor for death? I mean, poetry is always open to interpretation, but... Wow. This just jumped to a whole new level now. Now I'm imagining "the seas / swirling hungrily far below" as the River Styx or something, and "the lighthouse / crooked from its years of service" because it's been there for literally forever... Aaaah! Ok, maybe I'm looking way too deep into this, but if this was what you were intending to represent in this poem, great job, because you pulled it off wonderfully, and if not, even greater job, because you just subconsciously wrote an extremely multidimensional piece! :)

[Blysful]

Wow ... You actually got it right. Like, everything! From the dwindling stanzas to the crooked lighthouse to death! The relationship ideas are beautiful too, but death is kinda what I was thinking about when I wrote it 😊

[AliciaB]

Yay! I wish my English teacher could see this poetry analysis. :)

[Blysful]

Send it to them! Be like 'see im good at this!' :p

[AliciaB]

Haha yes. :)

[Dianne S Penfold]

Wonderful. I picture someone hopefully waiting for their loved one to come home.

[Blysful]

Thank you :) I love it when I can get someone thinking

[barleygirl]

I love this poem. The lighthouse is such a visual & symbolic choice . . . guiding those out in the stormy seas. The beauty of this poem is that the narrator could be waiting for a loved one to return from almost anything . . . war, addiction, depression, other beckoning life goals, or just an unknown disappearance. You carried the lighthouse symbols thru-out: "crooked from its years of service" could be describing the rustic structure, or the love that's undergoing separation. Also, vivid descriptions such as: "for me to trip and slip and fall" can pertain to the seas or to the precarious feeling of waiting for someone who might or might not ever return. There are simply a plethora of possibilities, but it doesn't read like you've tried to pack all this into it. It reads like a simple description of waiting for one's loved one. Great job!

[Blysful]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it :) I've gotten to the point where I'm experimenting with structure and theme instead of just rhyming lines up, so it's great to know that I've not done this at the cost of losing emotive imagery and language!
Thanks so much for this lovely review! :)

[Treylee]

Ive read this a couple of times and get a few meanings out of it but no matter the way it is perceived at it is a beautiful poem! I love the flow of it!

[Blysful]

Thank you for your kind words :)