Note from Elise: Occasionally I invite guests to post their thoughts for you. Today’s guest is poet Darius Gottlieb. I think you’ll enjoy his unique voice and ideas. At the end of the post, you can read a brief bio about him. Enjoy!
For Every Sunlit Day a Ravaging Storm
Nearly everyone has a dark room in need of light
Where the hardened collagen of scars and wounds
Is hidden from polite company in the auxiliaries of day
And I would be lying
To fail to admit to grief
Which is buried in pits of despair
Where demons of my discontent
Could too readily be unleashed
Terrorizing girl scouts with their cookies
And causing matronly mothers to blurt,
“Did no one advise that man how to appear in public?”
Not everyone wants to see your appendix scar
Or listen to your recount of flaccid stupidities
When you left judgment in ashes of your hash pipe
Or the deflated foam of too many beer bottles
And while some treat attorneys
As plastic surgeons for ill-gotten experience
There is, in truth, no concealer for outrageous folly
Which has injured others even when adrenalin
Was shooting through the cosmos of your veins
That blood on the doorknob may well be yours
That failure to be accountable to decent conscience
That refusal to see worth in your own esteem
That callousness when seeking advantage over strangers
What isn’t well known concerns the sharpened teeth
Of judgment angels, with laser-like eyes
Who rip and tear apart pretenses of your every rationalization
I cannot answer why God isn’t more soft and fuzzy
Like fabric softener
Save to remind you that Creation has never lacked bite
And that for every rainbow is a rampaging tornado,
For every sunlit day a ravaging storm
Given that it isn’t only global warming heating up:
The stakes are higher, the penalties
For refusing to awaken more dire
When too many of us rightfully hide rooms of darkness
Yet fail to invite the light to be a Christ-like balm to our wounds
I call to you now, in this deceptively cheery morning
To attend to that which is unsettled in the matrix of your soul,
To look with an unwavering, steely eye
Upon the gravity of your wounds
Then take the monsters of your pain and suffering
Out of their cages
For a proper pedicure, manicure and shampoo
Tie a pink ribbon amid their poodle-like hair
Take your most cringe-worthy fear for a walk
Keeping a tight leash about your once cooped-up pet
And when people remark, as they will,
“What a handsome beast! Is he yours?” — You can truthfully reply
“Yes. He is mine, although there was once a time
Not that long ago, when I was his.”
There has never been a better vortex
Than this Summer Solstice to emancipate your demons
With a little light and fresh air
To send them now and forever to charm school
So that when you appear before your Lord
Astonished and chagrined
That you’d doubted the munificence of eternity
You will realize in the golden flash of a single heartbeat
That this, your time on Earth, was your secret lover
To liberate your immortal Soul from the tightened grip of experience
And become perfected in astonishment
To the angelic infinity which has so patiently awaited
For your inevitable return.
© Darius Gottlieb www.PoetPhotos.com Summer Solstice, 2013
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