In context, the phrase «world slipping into darkness» in a recent challenge refers to serene twilight in the natural world. In the political world, the same phrase has an utterly different mood. What to do? Write a tanka and dig deeper for ways to fight the political world’s descent into darkness.
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The challenge is reblogged (in effect) below. I was jolted by the clash between the serenity of the image and the political interpretation of a phrase in the poem.
In the ebbing radiance
Of a world slipping into darkness
The light is most vivid
Capable of magiks
Unknown to daylight
© Patrick Jennings | Radiance ~ Pic and a Word Challenge #243
Radiance and Darkness
In sure and certain hope
that light returns tomorrow,
sky’s radiance fades.
But slipping into darkness
is not serene for nations.
Mellow Curmudgeon 
Thanks for the beautiful response, Mellow. <smile>
I often say of poetry and other art that a work is never complete until someone experiences it. The final authorship belongs to the mind and spirit which interprets the work. I am consistently surprised — and delighted — by the many interpretations I might see on anything I create.
That said, while in the context of the photograph my poem is referring to that early evening serenity we often experience when darkness descends, I’m also allegorically juxtaposing that visual reference against the other social/political meaning you’ve used in your poem. I don’t expect many people to pick up on it, so subtle and implicit is the reference. However, the lines which follow it, with this other interpretation in mind, also take on a different meaning than the glorious colours evening brings to the sky. 😉
Specifically, much like a “long dark tea-time of the soul” can illuminate insights for anyone struggling through difficult emotional/psychological/spiritual passages in their life, so too can a descent into darkness for entire nations or, indeed, an entire planet. It is an opportunity to shine a light in nooks and crannies we’ve overlooked before, or simply didn’t want to explore. And from that, there is a great potential to discover something new, which provides possibilities for change and adaptation, and, hopefully, a brighter future.
Of course, you’re dead on about such times being anything but serene. 😉
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Oh, and the spelling “magiks” rather than “magic” was very much intentional. 😉
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OOPS! Thought it was a typo. Have reverted “c” to “ks” here, tho I still can’t see why “ks” was wanted. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Thanks. I dithered for a while after writing the first 3 lines of my tanka as a haiku. Do I go with just that (and maybe come across as Pollyanna) or add something about the grim interpretation of “world slipping into darkness” (and maybe come across as The Grinch)? It’s interesting that U meant to allude (but more subtly) to the grim interpretation, so I feel better about having remarked on it.
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