Bearing Witness

Happy Chinese New Year! I wrote this poem on December 30, 2015 for the Western New Year. But it seems even more appropriate for the Chinese Holiday that falls on February 8, 2016 during the new moon when the night sky is truly dark. The promise of a new dawn can only be fulfilled by the presence of darkness. New year’s night is a time to acknowledge the night. It is the world where seeds take root and stars burst into being. It is a time to pay homage to the unknown and to honor the hidden seeds of future creation: seeds we must tend and water with our love as we start a new year moving through the seasons in 2016: The Year of the Monkey.

Bearing Witness

Welcome the dark.
It is the unknowable
that nourishes all life,
the soil into which
the seed sends roots
the soil through which
the tender stalk
pushes upward
toward an unseen light
even though every effort
of upward incline
is met with resistance
and the pull of gravity
goes against growth.

It is the dark
and the clay
of resistance
that gives it
the strength it needs
to break through
into the beyond
to which it belongs.

I pray for the tender reed
as it struggles up
on the promise
of a new world
written in
the coded language
of its origins
and for which
there is no ground
for belief, surrounded
as it is by walls.

I pray as a fellow seeker
whose faith endures
wavering before boulders
and the dry spells
that wither our spirit.

Listen As You Read!

I pray to the dark
that nourishes all life,
rooting myself in this
bed of dreams,
and the promise
that one day
I will break ground,
that one day
I will rise into the light,
bearing witness
to the truth
that lives locked
in our bones waiting
to be set free.

Picture, Poem and Recital
© 2016 Nick LeForce