Darkness

is only a compression of light

so dense that it seems
to pull everything into it
so that there is no room
for any movement, any quiver
of breath or meaning
an emptiness that is packed
full of absence; simultaneously
an arrival and a departure.

but darkness is also presence
a container for buried longing
a place of deep resonance
a time of timeless width
where pilgrims stop to rest
and seekers relent
to the relentless cycling
of the wave upon the sand
and the stars in the night sky.

darkness can seem harsh
and yet so infinitely soft
it is an endless unravelling
an abandonment of self
that which feels abandoned
yet is always, always found
in the waiting stillness
where shadows swirl
settling in myriad patterns.

the veil of darkness covers
just as much as it uncovers
gently embracing loss
even as it deftly hides pain
in the unmaking of being
where desire seems swallowed
but is actually unspooling
like the ongoing whirling of
every dervish who danced.

the darkness is my unknowing
and something of my knowing
in a world that confounds me
as certainly as it awes me
and knowing gets in the way
of remembering the awe
as it takes me to places
where darkness obliterates me
as we obliterate the earth.