Two Strangers

There is a stranger cowled in robes of dusk

Familiar yet unknown who follows me,

In the unguarded moments I lean to hear

His whisper and his treacherous advice.

He is the accompanist of our darker songs

Sweet with sorrow, longing and desire.

Lately he waits in alcoves of the mind

For a too-great light impedes his lethal steps.

There is a stranger known and yet unknown

Who guides the rapid progress of the soul.

I have seen him in the vastnesses of space

And in a secret chamber of the heart.

Though rare are his appearances in life

My soul he takes on journeys beyond time,

Without him I am but an empty husk

Drifting in the fierce winds of fate.

But when I open and expose the jewel

All becomes the sweet domain of light

And truth and joy my two companions are,

Around me the protection and the might.

I tread the golden way, the sunlit path,

My errors are but stepping-stones to God,

The past recedes, the rivers of grief no more

Can drown the spirit-song I have become.