In Praise of the Dark

Light candles, as one does, but consider this:

Over many millions of years

Organisms evolved

To thrive in the dark,

Eyes big and reflective,

Taking in the main chance. 

Mysterious only to those who slept 

While they flourished

Under the stars and the waning moon

Away from galumphing day hunters,

Safe in their night. 

For many thousands of years,

Humans slept during the dark

And rose in the light.

And if we didn’t feel safe at night

We sat together in circles under the stars

And told stories

Of god and miracles

Of warriors and kings

Of love and children. 

And that mastodon we had for dinner. 

But for the last hundred or so years,

If we were lucky,

We’ve lived in bright rooms,

Safe behind doors at night,

Unable to see past the streetlights to the stars.

Instead of circles we sit in bubbles

And the stories come from the outside,

Sometimes helping us laugh and cry. 

Sometimes provoking pain and shared resentment,

Each in our own well-lit isolation. 

Tonight, perhaps, 

Don’t be in such a rush

To set up your candles against the dark.  

Turn off that backyard lamp,

So you can see the constellations and

Let the night animals breathe.

Listen to the frightening ambient sounds

That don’t explain themselves to you. 

Then tell your own stories to each other,

Of miracles and myths and what you had for dinner.

And praise the darkness. 

Praise the light. 

Praise it all. 

Amen.