Sheila A McHugh – Shadow Word Play

Download PDF Here
14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Two Nov-Dec 2023.

Shadow Word Play, poem by Sheila A. McHugh.

Shadow Word Play

Night dreams and day dreams meet in the shadowlands of life.
Behind the scene they play
Their mysterious theatrics on our world stage.
In them strange personas interact; come and go unbidden.
A script writer enters, rubs the sleep from her eyes:
And wonders why she is there.
Exit stage left.

She awakens.
From a half open window in her mind’s eye
Elusive words longing to be captured,
Colourful, spirited words
Jumble, tumble in the shadows.

Lithely, in a perichoretic dance
She pirouettes in and out and through the fleeting words.
Finds their shadow source:
Plays catch with them on an empty page.
Sentencing them to life.

© Sheila A. McHugh

Sheila was born on and continues to live on Achill Island. She is deeply immersed in the culture and landscape of the place that formed her. She writes to preserve and promote the rich legacy hidden in the local landscape. She also explores the human journey through image and language, in both English and Irish, in its sense of belonging/non-belonging.  She is a published writer in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Recent publications include: Dánta in the Dark, (2023) Scrimshaw Journal (2023) Live Encounters (2023)