Friday, September 23, 2011
Almost Time (poem by Dorothy)
Almost Time
No matter how hard you try,
your shadow
is always with you.
Like a suitcase attached
to your wrist,
that you drag along
wherever you go,
receptable filled with all the griefs,
sorrows, regrets, fears,
angers, anguish of
your life.
Sometimes it even
speaks to you, saying,
“Listen, remember
I’m still here--”
even if you thought
you got it all straigtened out,
paid up your debts,
reconciled with your folks,
started a new career.
Even if you moved to
a strange city,
made new friends,
began everything over.
Sometimes the shadow
lightens a bit,
as if a shadow had a shadow
and so forth,
each a bit less dark
than the one before.
But it is still the same
old shadow,
ready to take over
when you least expect it,
some little slight,
some curt word
cutting you impossibly,
taking you back
a hundred years of your life
in this existence or another.
Even when you are dying
the shadow will be there,
standing
at the bottom of the bed,
saying, “Are you ready?
It’s almost time.”
Dorothy Walters
September 23, 2011
All of us have a shadow. The shadow is not essentially our faults that we try to hide from others, but rather a place where we hold our own fears and anxieties, often not even admitting them to ourselves. How can we deal with the shadow? One way is to look it squarely in the face, to speak or--as in this case--write about it. I find the latter approach very helpful. When I wrote the above, I was not, in fact, especially depressed, but rather inspired by another poem I had just read dealing with the shadow. Often it is easier to confront the shadow from a "safe distance," when we have a bit of objectivity on the issue.
Light and shadow go together. We cannot wear a smiley face all the time, but must deal honestly with our "dark places," and find ways to ameliorate them as much as possible.
(photograph by N. M. Rai)
