|
Fear and Lonelness
On Planet Earth
Perhaps my greatest fear
Was that of being alone.
The tearful pains
Of unmet needs
Some hollow yearning
A grasping for other.
Faced with aloneness,
The deafening silence
Of the walls of my home
Served to amplify the hurt,
A ubiquitous mirror of
My empty condition.
A lover? A wife?
Extended family? Community?
A lifetime of attempts
to satisfy this deepest ache.
Even the moments
Of greatest communion
Came to conclusion,
And were not enough
To quell the ache.
Even a night
Of blissful embrace
Was not enough paint
To cover the hurt
In the background of psyche.
At the bottom of it all
a simple fact was clear
a gripping fear of emptiness
a dominant theme in my life.
But life of the spirit
changes all that
the all-consuming fear
is met head on
with the gaze of awareness.
One makes friends
with what was once feared
or perceived as a threat
to happiness and joy.
And when recognition dawns
a great clarification:
what was once thought
a disturbing threat
and a reason for flight,
becomes a vast treasure
and a fountain of peace.
With new-found friends
of aloness and space
the tables have turned,
the fear being purged
and the heart is thus spilled
in every direction.
The lesson thus learned
to walk the dark valley
of one's greatest fears,
to open the doors
in the basement of being,
is the deepest service
that one could perform
for oneself and others.
| 
