Sometimes the shadows stretch into the light,
sometimes the night snatches what belongs to day.
Sometimes darkness makes its way
into the deeper parts of heart and soul.

We find our minds running the deeper furrows
of long valleys that wind their way along,
burrowing through the barren places
where everything feels cold and lonely.

Gray rises from within us,
making its way through the well-worn paths
of love and friendship that have lasted
from days long past,

threatening the very source
of our most sacred happinesses.

In these days, we struggle to rise from rest,
reluctant to leave the warm nest of sleep
that keeps us safe, gives us a break
from the long days of melancholy that we can’t explain.

Embarrassed and awkward,
we try to break through the darkness,
knowing there is no reason that justifies
the shadows in our eyes, the flat tone.

But even within this clinging veil,
we know that we are not alone,
even in the palest tones of life’s longest days,
His light makes its way through the clouds

that shroud our thoughts with exaggerated faults
and the whole long list of what we wish was otherwise.

In the end, we know, that it is His perpetual sending
of love, hope and faith,
that keeps us from the chasm beyond the realm of grace.
Even in the midst of this aching numbness,

He comes to us in a thousand different ways,
gently reaching through the humbling darkness,
touching us in the voices we barely hear,
His Spirit always near us, always drawing close and closer

until one morning, we see the blaze of dawning
burning through bare branches on the frozen ridge
and know that we will yet again
feel the ancient fire stir within us,

we will once again feel the smiles of those we have missed,
soft as whispered kisses upon half-closed eyes.

H. Arnett
11/12/14