The Bright Light

by Malinda Dunlap Fillingim

Did the stars twinkle that night you sat under the old oak tree
covered by moss hanging low in your honor?

Did the wind bring you fresh air as you sat by the waters
writing words that gave us all reason to breath freely?

Did you look at the moon and know every color that glowed under it
was precious in the sight of the Divine?

Did you hear the voices of those buried years ago by
injustice, those killed by hatred, those silenced by greed?

Did you hear their voices telling you to write of dreams, of hope
that one day we would all walk the dirt roads together united by
Freedom
one
word, one step
at a
Time.

Malinda Dunlap Fillingim lives in Leland, North Carolina, and this poem is based on her stay at the Penn Center in South Carolina, where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed  as he made the first rough drafts of his “I Have a Dream” speech. The photo is of the house he lived in during that time.