poetry
I’ve learned
I set foot on this new land
mind racing with expectations
so many things I sought
adventure, love, learning...
deep and meaningful
loud and life-changing
but little by little it all slipped away
I could no longer hold onto those expectations
and in losing them I found myself
and I’m still finding
because I finally stopped looking
stopped seeking, stopped searching, stopped screaming
and there, in the silence, it lies in wait
the answer to the question I’ve yet to ask
the image that I’ve yet to look for
there, in the silence, I listen
silent like the sea, ever-moving, ever-breathing
so many things I sought for
beyond myself, reaching out, looking away
but they failed me and I wept
lost child crouched in the corner
there was no place left to look in the darkness
no place left but in
and there I saw a tiny light
and I followed it
and slowly, for the first time
the child crept from the corner
her hands no longer reaching out
but holding onto a greater thing inside
and slowly, by the light that she saw
and the music that she heard
and the power and the passion that she felt
she learned to dance
and she was free
where this path will lead I do not know
but I am unafraid
and the little child dances
in the light of a thousand other joyful souls
and I cannot see them
but I know they’re there
wherever these feet may carry me
to the dusky foreign lands within my soul
or halfway across the world
for a moment I have a brief, tiny glimpse
of the pattern, the weaving, the web
and though I am but one dancer
I can feel the pulse of life around me in the dark
I can feel it only because I ceased to seek it
and began only to be