Abyss

 

We who dwell in darkness

   Have no need of eyes.

Yet we possess them

   As a liability.

 

We grope, and listen keenly,

   Dwelling in fear,

      Searching for hope,

Shielding our exposed corneas

   From phantoms, foes, and fantasies.

 

Opened or closed, our eyes

   See only darkness.

Best to keep them closed

   In total blackness

      Where insects, enemies,

         and accidents reign free.

 

And yet we watch!

   We listen…

      We grope…

          Hoping against hope for hope.

 

The greatest foe here:

   Imagined light!

"Did you see that--?

    A reflection?

        A dull flash?"

We move in that direction

   But there is nothing.

 

How will we know

   When the light really comes?

We have dreamed of it.

   We have listened to tales.

Some claim it's all around them.

   Yet they walk as we do

      Stumbling with us

         While claiming sight.

 

I dreamt I saw

   A lightning flash!

It filled up the sky

   And illumined the world around me.

For but a fraction of a moment I saw

   The world as it was.

 

Did I dream that?

   Or did I live it?

I only know I long for such a moment.

   And I dare to dream

      Of extended lifetimes

         Filled with continuous

            And all-encompassing

               Light….

 

—Dave Leigh

 

------

 

"We must first peer into the darkness, feel strangled and entombed in the hopelessness of living without God, before we are ready to feel the presence of his living light."

 

—Abraham Joshua Heschel,

God in Search of Man,

page 140.