[ I first wrote this poem in July 2009.
In the original version, whilst the ideas were there, they were perhaps not optimally explained, and, as the poem is quite complex, verbally-economic explanation has not been an easy target. Although I have made headway, the poem may still lack important ‘links’ towards clear establishment of meaning.

In-so-far as it largely fulfils the basic criteria of a 14-line Sonnet, the poem, if read slowly, evenly, and with deliberation, is now (February 2101), rhythmically satisfactory.
The lines of the three stanzas successively number 8, 4, and 2.
The last stanza - a couplet - is a summary or conclusion.

The basic aim is to express a concept that there is an independent, black (hence invisible; hidden; and un-sensed by normal perception), spirit - as a Guardian Angel - that protects the human soul. Whilst we can perceive light (symbolic of consciousness), and can easily recognise how that guides our daily lives and decisions, we need also to recognise an underlying invisible power, which in turn guides that light. So, the traces of our temporal lives are represented by bright shrouds of conscious memory (light), upon which the Eternal Spirit enforces its own contrasting ‘scratches’ of invisible darkness. ]

It should read 'February 201'0 - of course