Even as the darkness floods you
Through clenched fist and gritted teeth
Red eyes and white knuckles
You must allow temperance to see you through
Even when you don’t understand
Life can be a journey where you don’t know where you’re going until you get there
Another day lived is another battle won
Salvage what you can from yourself
You go out to greet the day
You feel frozen, but not from the cold
Tears run down your face
The cold wind against your wet cheeks
Stings even more
Like needles
Pain on top of pain
Your repair has begun
Even if it takes forever
The hardest part is over
Your new path glows
Hear your footsteps bang against the floor
Allow them to announce your intention
When they enquire, let your answer echo forevermore
And care not about their contention
A search that requires no external senses
No map exists, nor could one be drawn
No compass can help you
You may not take anyone with you
This road belongs to you
Even a blind man can find himself
The mirror is dirty, not you.
The mirror might break
But you don’t have to.
Look at your hands, now look to your heart.
Look to the inside
Your soul, the greatest part.
The leaves fall
Try not to follow
But if you do
Make sure you’re not hollow.
Plants die, and so will you
But we have the mind to know that it’s true.
Plants just do, they do what they’re told
We do what we want until we get old.
Nature tells us, and we listen for a while
But that will only get us as far as a mile.
We decide to go further, because of our fervor
And by the end of the day, we end up worlds away.
Walking through the forest
looking for nothing, as you have already found what you came for
all around you
You go to a place
so dense with trees and brush that you cannot see too far ahead
All around you, casting shadows everywhere
You go here
to find clarity
For it is dense with physical shadows, not mental ones
You feel heat, greater and greater
A fire
The trees are burning
The lake is heating
Smoke rises
Steam rises
They blow over to you
Surrounded
You have to find a way out
Your view obscured by these forces you cannot fight
Not at this moment
It is now impossible to avoid both
These must be equally bad
you may think
Smoke and Steam both blind your sight
But you can breathe in one of them
Step outside
The cold wind in your face
It may blow you back at first
Do not tremble…it feeds on your shock
You may squint your eyes
But face it.
Chilling your perspective
But do not cover up
The shock, the sting
It prepares you for the day
It helps you with your work
It betters you
Take it in a little
It’s a cold welcome from the world, but a welcome nonetheless.
Would you really deny a shake if it was from a cold hand?
When you are hanging off the cliff of a mountain,
And possess no tools to help you up,
You better have friends with you.
Otherwise you have no one.
No one to help you up or catch you when you fall,
Or even come to collect your body.
Your fate lies right below you, on the ground.
Or…
You could fly
May the Light of Knowledge
Rain down upon Me
And Affect Me as it has done so.
Though it may cause more pain than comfort at many times,
I may look to the End.
And in the End there is always the contentment of Knowing
That It is worth it.
Despite knowing the Answer,
I know I will keep asking, myself,
that Question many times over
through life
And I will always come back and conclude with what I already know.
I know the Answer before I ask the Question.
I know the trade, I know the price.
I would rather have Dreams and Nightmares
Than my sleep go always uninterrupted.
I would rather Live in my Home in the Light and Darkness with Angels and Demons,
than be blind to both.
To See.
There is the choice.
Once you Know,
The Light is the Good,
But Sight is an inherent Good as well.
I Choose,
And I Stride through the long Journey of Enlightenment.
Affirm, Question, Reaffirm.
And most times, maybe all,
The feeling of the Answer I already know, gets sweeter each time.
And I continue on the Journey.
The Pen and Sword 