The Joy that Inner Progress Brings

If I could write of what I see

As light and darkness lie entwined

And truth and falsehood vie for me,

Seek behind the heart to find

The spark, the living entity

Called soul, and clasp it as their own,

I would tell of battles fierce as fire.

Though seared and burned to the very bone

Somehow I lasted, did not tire

Supported , held by Him alone

Above all angels. I spoke His name.

As the war within relentlessly

Continued as in a close chess game,

Myself a strange anomaly,

Witness and player, one and the sameÉ

But I cannot capture the essence of things

In words that fail experience,

Unable to render the blows and stings

And only make a jumbled sense

Of the joy that inner progress brings.