Ode To Night

        “We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.”
                                                   -Khalil Gibran

I

Cry with me, sultry night;
pray for the sentient things
crawling ‘neath your sight.
Glow your moon’s pale light.
Illuminate those whom pine for all
to be right and the fields of things
who count not the hours,
but wave in the wind endlessly
and futilely.
Pass me under safe care tonight,
let the voices lead me softly along:
a muted song.
Cry with me, sultry night.    

II

Caress me, O still night;
wrap around me like arms
as I inhale this damp and cool
reprieve.
You are kinder than the brightest day,
softer than earthen clay;
fill me with your monotone array
in blue, black and steel silver grey.
Your blanket of heavy, bound certainty
is what I breathe so shallowly.
You covet me, and I, you;
what love, what need --
It is only I in you.
Caress me, O still night.    

III

Shelter me, honest night;
listen to my secrets whispered in a
cavernous ear, let me shout for only
you to hear.
Enclose me in your deep pools --
rock me in uncounted hours.
It is only you I ever run to;
my obscurity lies in anonymous you.
We are the ones the daylight seekers
never knew;
we, together are the sincerest pangs the
brightest stars ever drew.
Cup me in your vast hand as I embrace you:
Shelter me, honest night.    

IV

Rock me, sweetest night;
as nectar to birds of flight --
a flower swaying in the breeze
is clung to so tightly by a bumblebee
with the cozy hive of which he dreams;
you are mine, open and fragrant,
quiescent and ever as free.
Your vacant air is what I need
and in it I so deeply breathe.
Keep me there, in your care;
lift me high as I in you.
Let me fall into your bloom
Rock me, sweetest night.    

V

Dream with me, wildest night;
come alive with my closing eyes
to watch with me what can be
in a world were it only as free as a
silken scarf upon a swift breeze.
Raise me high to look down upon
the many muted colors you create
and the deeper hues of fading light
and, shadowed by your rising height,
I view you above, shimmering
and full of playful delight.
Dream with me, wildest night.  

VI

Go with me, sovereign night,
be the guide who follows by my side
into places far and deep where few
have stepped and none have dare wept;
for it is knowledge you command, and I,
of you who follow: us hand in hand.
For brilliant day distorts your grace,
but in the dark I admire your radiant face.
Hearten my journey to keep our steps light.
Go with me, sovereign night.  

VII

Heal me, O balm of night;
such blistering words as day has
brought, so you wholly repair.
I only need wake to meet you there
beyond the sunsets orange tawny death
you, in frigid blueness come to life.
You, in coolness lift all strife
and in the beyond where you abide,
a healing rest to all is come alive
to wake me from ills which spread
far, rampant and wide.
Heal me, O balm of night.  

VIII

Hear me, O truest night
let me play a tune upon your lyre,
let the melody ring ever so clear.
To you, my ode becomes ours alone:
as I in you.
Rest softly on your lofty throne;
we create to let our feelings out,
I am yours forever and to you devout.
Let me stay in you,
release the day from nascent blue
to your midnight black;
from every corner it shouts back.
Hear me, O truest night.  

IX

Carry me forth, O sturdy night
in branches of your knowing
which splits apart as water over rocks
returning to its eternal self as a wound clock.
From early day you carry me along
toward this fortress, purposeful and strong.
The setting sun announces your debut
and in your midst my dreams are coming true.
I wait for day to ebb, and only then for you.
Carry me forth, O sturdy night.  
  
X

Regale me, O surest night
that I am yours, alone and you
are mine with every known I seek,
that I might find if only you can lead.
Earnestly and with our fate in keep
among the stones we step along the weeds
and in your many shades of which to learn
always to your school will I return.
Teach me all I seek to know,
bestow on me every reason
for which by you to softly go.
Regale me, O surest night  

XI

Reveal me, O wisest night,
for I am hardly mad within your sight
I release all untruths to your enveloping
array, and in your lunar glow I play.
After all the imponderable things melt away,
I remain unburdened by my leaden ways
of daily thought and reason in my gaze.
And in some blurry haze which hardly glows
as vivid solar streams would do in yellow or
blue, know I alight along your boundaries
and seek not to pass them or be freed.
Reveal me, O wisest night.    

XII

Absorb me, O tender night
that I might disperse as you
into the great expanse up there
so high above the shaking trees.
Help me know how with you I'll be
lost and unformed as clay unmolded
placed within your mists so neatly folded
Tell me where and to which I'll follow
softly along and into your furthest hollow.
I will go and only by your song;
ever widening my eyes to your
dimmest of ponds.
Absorb me, O tender night.  

XIII

Conceal me, O stalwart night,
how I know you ever will provide
a towering shelter in which to abide.
All I need to see is within your realm
and inside your ship I sit at the helm.
To where I have come from, so will I return
and of your artistry to you will I turn
into myself as I am meant to be
unfettered of faults and ever free
Your hand I hold as you hold me
in kind, so will I walk with
ne'er a bind.
Conceal me, O stalwart night.

           .....