From the Folds of Night

Waves of heat wash over me,

The shuddering body's chill warms

Yet all is still a mystery,

And life a spate of frenzied storms

For I unwilling or perverse

Turn from the spirit's ordained path

Saddled by demon dreams or worse,

Impatience and cruel self-wrath.

I mark each day as season's spin

Dividing time's relentless hours,

In the dark and bleak within

Pray to the divine powers.

In the iron mesh of sorrow caught

I miss the unity once found

Among the saintly where I sought

Solidity of spirit-ground.

If peace in me cannot descend

War will rage relentlessly

The wrestle with night shall never end.

I must surrender willingly

To the One I know awake within

Working through our grief and pain

Absolving mortal life fromsin.

Who offers all gives not in vain

To some amorphous entity

Or God who sits on judgment's seat,

But through evolving purity

Will glimpse the tread of stainless feet

That touch on earth and sanctify

The human journey towards the light,

A presence none can dare deny

Who frees us from the folds of night.