A Dark Night of a Soul

A Dark Night of a Soul

The water cool
splashing at the ankles.

The helm held
for the time being.
It is that which the soul grasps.

There are no controls—
no way to steer the vessel.

Direction is irrelevant
all earthly North—lost.

Yet, from this point
the one aboard the living cocoon
sways with the ebb and flow.

In the darkness, one hears the wind.

The moment quickens
water soaking the soul…
hands grip ‘no-thing’
yet there is a sense of holding onto Life.

From THIS center, all life
encompassed—

The winds cease…
wobbling now to maintain balance.

Which easier
to stand as the wind wrestles,
tossing in the unseeing

OR

stopped as if frozen
held in place?

The soul rocks simply to stay afloat.

A light streaks across the black
canvas.
A roar heard in the not so distant
distance

the sound~~~a hundred hoof beats
stampeding in every hidden corner.

Hurled from the cocoon,
the soul bursts
the remains of the vessel submerged.

The soul—in a shattering
moment…a taste of freedom
elicits a sense of fear and wonder.

Nothing to hold/no longer held
—a gulp of water swallowed unintentionally.

The soul is alive.

Life is holding the soul
and the being realizes it
never had to ‘grasp’…
never had the soul
had to hold on

to any-THING.

The deep sea churns—
the soul drifts
and takes moments to tread water.

A deep breath in…
the soul plunges and from the
port of the ‘being’ an
exhale expands as the
surface broken.

The darkness reveals a newness—
SEEING so many others
NOW floating alongside—free.
The soul is not alone.

The stars appear from galaxies
far away~~~
they, too, alive in the dark.

Ahead—the soul makes
out a landscape~~~
shadows of mountains,
arms of swaying branches.

One hand curls over into
the water, the other hand
follows the rhythmic motion.

When the soul reaches the island,
the arrival only marks the
beginning of the journey

the dark night of a soul
sails on and beyond.