*****

Recorded Reading (6:11): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vx4odykna7eonam27f4ek/Dark-Night.mp3?rlkey=ckfi0vcqkwk41qzso5canuatc&dl=0

*****

Dark Night

We all come down to zero
Brought that way by care
Betrayal, disappointment
Confusion or despair

Jaded by misfortune
We look on everything we’ve learned
Possessions, revelations
All strenuously earned

We measure them against
The steep demands of present strife
And ponder the unfathomable
Purposes of life

Despairing people can’t stay still
Indefinitely
Pain must turn to action
Eventually

But which direction do we turn
When we know that we nothing know ~
By what make we selection then
Upon which way to go?

As we at such a juncture
Limitless potential suss
There’s but one resolution
Has any hope for grounding us

Back into our society
So we may add our aid
Benefit this collective
Illusion we’ve all made

And which we had imagined
All potential of this life
Before we were awakened
By illuminating strife

To higher possibility
More of hope for harmony
More helpfulness each other to
Than commonly we present see

At that instant of nothingness
In which everything reside
We reach to find some moments
The mem’ry of which gives us pride

Not by the lower standards
Our previous perspectives of
But lit by our new understanding
Of the precedence of love

Whose presence even taxing work
As lightest play can make
And absence even play
Create a hell in which to bake

Evaluating actions past,
By newly sharpened ears be heard
A more complex significance
To every thought and word

A brighter light illuminates
Our motivations at their core
Insights are available
Which we had not accessed before

Observing from our newly wise
Place of vuln’rability
We clearer the results
Of all of our past actions see

Observing that the ones
Which make us feel not cold but warm
Were those which did the greatest good
Anent the smallest harm

That nothing filled more sweetly
Our presently so empty cup
As one to whom we had been kind
Gratefully glancing up

In absence of resentment
Without an ounce of guile
Effortlessly gifting us
With their welcoming smile

Greater than any benefit
To any individual
Were those came when we consciously
Served the highest good of all

Looking at it from the ground
It’s at that time we understand
The purpose of existence
Is to extend a hand

An ear, a lift, a shoulder
An open and a willing heart
To every spirit God sees fit
To make of these brief lives a part

No matter how far “up” they look
No matter how far “down” we are
We’re all touring the universe
In this same compact car

And even so, it’s tough to find
A decent parking place
Since we’re driving a little blind
In inner and in outer space…

We have direction, faint but clear!
We say to ourselves, “Self, you know,
It doesn’t take a million bucks
Through this world to smiling go

If I am called to walk a path
In a less lovely neighborhood
Then that must be the one
In which might hope to do more good

There are worse places in this world
Than I have come to, heavens know!
So with a bit of bravery
Past these few hardships I will go

Look to see what spirits might
Be sharing this hard road with me
Together we will work to make
The cheerfulness created be

By those who can forget the ads
The role models upon TV
The brand or price of this or that
And just genuine be

Knowing that fellow travelers
Relieved are in their plight
That day by carrying away
In their worn hearts a little light

Redeemed in their ability
To hope that after all
Life isn’t solely filled with things
Which hurt and which appall

In a sea peremptory
They’ve stumbled on a glowing gem
Someone thought it worth their while
To gift a smile to them!

And that is how the dawn comes
To a dark night of the soul
We realize the exercise
Intended was to make us whole

In ways we never would have been
On a path we might prefer
Cas’ually entitled
As we had felt we were

And we feel strong again, we feel
Recipient a great gift of
As we regain our feet
And walk out in service of love

*****

Until removal of the stalker/targeter/vandal/arsonist following her allows her to approach any landlord ~ even for a private parking space ~ and to begin once again to create professional connections and to rebuild her life, this poet presently lives homeless and at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

Arts patrons may visit http://www.UgiftABLE.com , using code #72D-31S, or choose to send a personal check to the poet’s ABLE account. It takes about two weeks for the poet to be notified of your patronage.

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