Again and once again, I feel the sand
That's washed upon this beach by breaking waves
And sand becomes my bed, supporting me
While sunshine comes and goes and clouds cast shadows
Just long enough for me to feel the cold
Of dampened air that never leaves this place.~
But heat prevails for long, and traps me here
Beneath its rays that weigh a ton, preventing
Me now from rising up to answer this
To take the sand in my own hands and grip
Its neck to wrestle with it, bringing it
Down to its knees because that's what I know.~
The sand is drifting constantly into
The spaces in between my toes and it
Is making me so certain that my skin
Is cracked at every joint and all it does
Is let the caustic elements inside
To search within, to find my hidden soul.~
When I can barely breathe, and barely feel
I feel the grace of God, spun like a wheel.
My body's awful bent but yet it's only
My spirit wanting healing, calling boldly.
My sweat-drenched body, burning in the sun
Is dried with cool dry sand poured by one~
Whose mercy brings me here and saves my life
Whose mercy drags the seabed searching for
The rest of us who need that mercy poured
On wounds that we create with our own knife
We cut ourselves and cut our siblings while
We scratch for sustenance in single file.~
And while I'm breathless here, and waiting still
The grace of God comes nearer to me now
To make me feel as if I never could
Have doubted He would surely come for me
I surely did not know and knew not when
I was surely born to be born again.
YOU ARE READING
Chronicles of the Dark Night of the Soul
PoetryDark Night of the Soul is a classic piece of Christian literature. It discusses an experience that seems to come to all of us sooner or later. I wrote two response poems, and so I have posted the original, by St. John of the Cross, and the two re...