The sky cracks
just a little
and light
the Light
pours in,
pours down
and we with cupped hands catch it,
and all the month
is a held breath
– Ray Lacina
About the Poet
Ray Lacina is a Professor at Delta College near Saginaw, Michigan, where he teaches writing and a variety of literature courses. He embraced Islam in 1989. He’s written all of his life, starting with his first poem in the third grade ("I like birds/and birds like me/but I live in a house/and they live in a tree"). Over the years he’s moved on from ornithology to exploring faith and the power of beauty to pierce the mundane in his poetry, as well as to write fiction, both speculative and mainstream. He lives in Michigan with his wife and son.
This poem appears in A Kaleidoscope of Stories: Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF STORIES – Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry brings together the myriad voices of eighty Muslim poets from diverse backgrounds to powerfully articulate what it means to be Muslim in the modern world. It provides a platform for Muslim voices to be heard speaking about their experiences in their own words, and offers an antidote to the stereotyped, one-dimensional portrayal of Muslims we see so often in the media. The anthology gives the reader a glimpse of the thoughts, hopes and challenges of those who see the world through two or more cultural lenses, and provides an authentically Muslim space for the expression of our spiritual, social and personal lives. It brings together the verses of multi-generational voices exploring themes including love and loss, identity and belonging and Islamic spirituality.
