honor the light inside you.
I honor it by allowing it
to cast the shadows it casts.
People say,
it is better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness.
I say, why would anyone
curse such a warm blanket
as darkness?
I say, yes, I do —
and then I turn around
and adore the spill of deep night
from which I came,
and I turn and run back into it.
I say, I am happy —
I am fully in the folds of joy,
though not without sorrow
backing it like a quilt,
like the lining of a curtain
which holds back the light
and the eyes of the prying people
who cannot imagine this
quiet, this sacred shade.
that turn life into a switch —
light on, light off, this is good,
this is bad. I say, here is the idea
the deepening. I say
both sides seem to beckon me.
That I stand in one to better see
the wholeness of the other is my
role and calling. I cannot stop singing
the vision long enough
what people say.