Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,

And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;

Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;

Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,

And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.

Peace flows into me
As the tide to the pool by the shore;
It is mine forevermore,
It ebbs not back like the sea.

I am the pool of blue
That worships the vivid sky;
My hopes were heaven-high,
They are all fulfilled in you.

I am the pool of gold
When sunset burns and dies, —
You are my deepening skies,
Give me your stars to hold.

When I take my last breath,
I will fight to be free.

I will struggle with every gasp,
I will drag my strife behind me
tired and wrinkled
even in dusty ruins
I will bare my chains,
in between the teeth of angels
they will break for me.

To set myself free
I will break the boundaries
of my imagination
to see all possibilities
ahead of myself.

In between the teeth of angels
lay heavenly possibilities
and beyond the horizon
dreams await me.

©️ 2025 By Amanda Shelton

Actually
white at the knees

the place where
you used to cut them off

and let them
live a second life

as shorts

I’ve started sharing my poetry,
and I think I’ve concerned a few—
friends, family—
they didn’t see the blue, blue, blue
sadness
that sits quietly in my lingering,
spilling out in these poems.

It was never my goal,
but the sadness likes to speak,
wants to say what is true:
that the sadness still exists,
a deep, deep
blue, blue, blue.