Why We Travel photo on the NY Times

Nothing competitive but its still great to be published online.

You, Darkness

You, darkness, that I come from
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes a circle of light for everyone
and then no one outside learns of you.
But the darkness pulls in everything-
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them! -
powers and people-
and it is possible a great presence is moving near me.
I have faith in nights.

***

So I somehow found myself engaged in an impossible balancing act these days, as I always do, I suppose. But my days have always ended the same way – a smattering of Rilke before I let the darkness envelope me and the stars fade from my gaze as I enter into dreamland. Last night, I randomly came to this poem and it somehow captured my newly-resuscitated outlook. Which is great but who knows until when it will last? It’s a nice complement to my Freud readings, in a way, bringing back memories of those “we are all zebras” homily of Fr. Louie a few years ago. The dynamic interaction between binary opposites do not come as clearly as the stark consequences one side standing alone pose. But even as we remember, we also forget. More often than not, actually. But this poem powerfully makes the case why sometimes we need the darkest of nights to appreciate the rising sun.