I bumped into this poem, by John O'Donohue, from his book "To Bless the Space Between Us"
For Loneliness
When the light lessens, Causing colors to lose their courage, And your eyes fix on the empty distance That can open on either side Of the surest line To make all that is Familiar and near Seem suddenly foreign,
When the music of talk Breaks apart into noise And you hear your heart louden While the voices around you Slow down to leaden echos Turning silence Into something stony and cold,
When the old ghosts come back To feed on everywhere you felt sure, Do not strengthen their hunger By choosing fear; Rather, decide to call on your heart That it may grow clear and free To welcome home your emptiness That it may cleanse you Like the clearest air You could ever breathe.
Allow your loneliness time To dissolve the shell of dross That had closed around you; Choose in this severe silence To hear the one true voice Your rushed life fears; Cradle yourself like a child Learning to trust what emerges, So that gradually You may come to know That deep in that black hole You will find the blue flower That holds the mystical light Which will illuminate in you The glimmer of springtime.
More poems by John O'Donohue:
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More poems by John O'Donohue: