After
All who you have loved
Have been taken,
Crushed,
Or chased away;
After
Your home has evaporated,
Taking serenity with it;
When
The wind carries your copious tears
That fall in a deluge
And the faces in your world
Are totally devoid of joy;
After
Your spirit was mangled
Beyond your
Own recognition,
And when you spoke
No one, not even you, listened;
When
Your stomach aches,
Hungering for meals
That are only memories
And night is your only friend;
When
Tomorrow moves decades away
And redemption
Disappears into your soul’s void;
After
Your sacred was declared obscene,
The Holy betrayed you,
And the evil left you
For dead and condemned;
When
Your reasoning
Becomes meaningless
And your intuition
Is over-ruled
By other fools and by your fear;
When
You can endure
All the chaos and evil
The Universe can give
And still survive, you have
Done well.
But,
When
You can also stand humbled
(Even when naked and tattered)
As the dawn exposes your desperation,
And still you can rejoice in knowing
That your scars will surely heal,
That you tears will water your garden,
That your hunger will feed you and every soul
You encounter on your path;
And
When
Your judgment mates with your intuition
And gives birth to your wisdom,
And you know that being alive
(Even if only barely so)
To greet your dawn
Is The Universe’s gift to you unwrapped
With your every mindful breath;
And
When
You can smile at
All that will be
And accept all that is gone,
And love all who are no longer,
And forgive your broken self,
And accept
Who and what will never be
Because you know
Beyond the limits of reason,
Beyond the limits of your history
That the next who, next what, next you
Will miraculously manifest and evolve into
The who, what, and you are meant
To be on
Your evolution far beyond
Your old and obsolete far beyond;
Then and only then
Will you know you,
Then and only then
Will you know bliss,
Then and only then
Will you know faith.
© copyright 2016 John David Higham