Journey through the Darkness

We exist in the corners of our own secrets,

Hidden like cowards at the edges of the darkness,

Trapped as prisoners to the silence of the night,

Wrapped in the voices in our own minds

Behind the sweaty teeth of our own hesitations

While frightened ghosts stand guard at the threshold.

But to become who we truly are,

Beneath the shackles of our own doubt,

We must step into that black,

Walk to the other edge and then sometimes back,

Carrying the burdens of our insecurities

Across stooping shoulders of hopelessness and remorse

Time and time again until they seem finally

Light against our scarred and weathered hands,

Weightlessly pressing into our calloused feet,

And we run like athletes slicing into the wind.

We must conquer the demons before they conquer us,

Pushing yourself through the monotonous darkness,

Feel how it slimes and scratches across your skin,

Refusing to let it push itself into you.

Never return the cold embrace of darkness,

Never mistake it for your friend.

Never fear the cold stare of the abyss,

It is also not your enemy… it just is,

Like rainbows and sunsets and late winter storms;

Part of the natural existence,

Simply another landscape of the human experience.

Some will try to teach you to be ashamed,

Others might try to teach you to blame,

Because most people mistake rain for pain,

Not seeing the art hidden in the stains,

Like shading on a painting of who we are becoming.

So allow the darkness to surround you if it does,

Stand tall, even if you fall, still walking forward,

Accept the stains left on your soul,

Making you vivid and a little more whole;

Leaving you deeper, more beautiful

As you stand statuesque in the cascade of light

Of the sunset or sunrise on the other side.