“Darkness and Light”~by Michael Graves

 

 

“Darkness and Light”

First there is darkness.
Until there is light.

Light is not the natural way of things. It is
created. Absent light
the universe is dark.

There is first absence
until you approach.
I feel your warm breath on my neck.
Your presence (as it always does) changes
the essence of my experience. Much

in the way that there is
first cold. Until it is
replaced with heat.

There is inaction before action
status quo before change
stillness before motion.

Prior to hatred there is
the willingness to understand.

We attract that which we fear
because we work to push it away.
In pushing, we must make contact.
And in contacting, we draw it near.

Create, instead, in the direction in
which you would travel.
And the things you fear will
drop away behind you. They cannot
keep up without your help.

The reason that we do not achieve, has nothing
to do with anyone else.
Life is as we perceive it and
as we empower it. Prior
to perception, it is not our life.

–Graves 4/11/15